AT&T has unveiled their third quarter earnings, which among other things indicate the company added the most iPhones ever in a single quarter. According to AT&T, they activated 3.2 million iPhones during the third quarter, with forty percent of those customers new to AT&T. The data suggests that despite AT&T's network headaches, the lure of the device is simply too great for many to resist. iPhones represented 74% of the 4.3 million postpaid, integrated devices activated by AT&T last quarter as AT&T tries to extend their exclusive distribution arrangement with Apple.

More shiny new iPhones means more people paying $30 a month for data (whether they use that much data or not), and AT&T's wireless data revenues jumped 34% from last year's, to $3.6 billion. AT&T continues to see huge subscriber additions in wireless. The company added 2 million new subscribers to bring their wireless subscriber total to 81.6 million. Once lured in by the iPhone, many customers stay because of the iPhone (and long term contract ETF penalties), as AT&T continues to have the lowest customer defection rate in the industry.

In the summer of 2008 we noted that AT&T was no longer taking new orders for their Callvantage VoIP service. The company of course wanted to begin pushing their U-Verse Voice VoIP product a little harder, but employees also hinted to us that AT&T was cooking up a new bring your own broadband (BYOB) VoIP offering as well. That BYOB service still hasn't arrived, but AT&T this week gave a concrete date for the CallVantange shutdown, which previously was vaguely scheduled for sometime this year. According to an e-mail being sent to customers this week, CallVantage will officially be shuttered on Novermber 17. Hopefully, the seven of you still using AT&T's CallVantage service find this information useful.

AT&T, Comcast and Verizon all came under fire recently for suggesting the baseline definition of broadband should remain low (as in, between 200-768 kbps), given that means they'd have less work to do -- and less government oversight into their affairs. AT&T's comments to the FCC (pdf) went one step further, arguing that video gaming should not be considered an essential component (like e-mail and browsing) when discussing broadband definitions, and is instead an "aspirational" service.

After quietly soft launching their new video portal earlier this month, AT&T has now officially announced their new "AT&T Entertainment" video portal. According to the AT&T press release, the portal offers free TV shows and movie clips "via an agreement with Hulu," which is apparently why it looks very similar to Hulu itself. As it stands, the offering is little more than a placeholder for AT&T's future Internet TV ambitions, be they online content that's integrated with their U-Verse service, or part of an authentication "TV Everywhere" system. So why not just go to Hulu? Good question, and one that AT&T's going to have to answer in short order.

AT&T today launched their VDSL-based U-Verse service in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, as the company continues to ramp up deployment of the service across former BellSouth markets. The company also recently launched the service in Memphis and portions of Alabama.

AT&T has launched a beta version of a new video portal dubbed "AT&T Entertainment." The fairly basic-looking website joins an increasingly crowded field, offering access to free TV shows and movie clips to both Windows and Mac users. According to the website FAQ, the site also should allow users to manage and schedule their U-Verse IPTV DVRs. According to a statement AT&T sent out to dozens of websites, they're finalizing a few elements of the site before an official launch "soon." AT&T has shown no limit to their interest in delivering both the pipe and the content, with a slew of projects ranging from 3D Browsers to their now-defunct VideoCrawler project. Remember when ISPs just concentrated on running networks? Yeah, good times.

After a recent launch in Memphis, AT&T's now expanding the company's VDSL-based IPTV service into Alabama, as the company continues to push its upgrades into former BellSouth territory. Select customers in the Mobile and Pensacola areas now have access to the service, AT&T telling locals the launch is a great thing because "competition makes everybody better at what they do." As in many other markets, some Mobile city council members were concerned about the visual impact of large AT&T VRADs on property values. "I know how it feels because I've got a utility box in front of my house," says Council member Connie Hudson. "I planted a Sago palm in front of it." AT&T this week is also pushing U-Verse into the Louisville, Kentucky area.

AT&T this morning announced that the carrier is offering a new bundle promotion that gives consumers U-Verse broadband service free for six months if they also take U-Verse TV and either U-Verse VoIP or wireless phone service. According to the company, users have to sign up for at a U200 U-Verse TV package or above, or a Nation 450 plan or above to get the deal. At the moment the promotion is only available in Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, but AT&T insists the deal will hit all U-Verse markets in short order.

Several users in our AT&T U-Verse forum note that they're seeing new Mediashare functionality popping up on their IPTV set tops from the telecom giant. The functionality allows U-Verse customers to stream media files to their living room from their PC, functionality that's finally becoming an industry standard.

A statement by AT&T notes that the company's U-Verse VDSL & IPTV service has finally arrived in Memphis, as U-Verse rolls into BellSouth territory. Tennessee was one of a dozen states where baby bells lobbied to "reform" the video franchise system, promising lawmakers lower prices if they passed a state-level franchise law.

Users in our U-Verse forum (also see thread here) complain that AT&T has begun inundating TV viewers with new pop up advertisements. On the positive side, the pop ups (like this one) don't appear to come up very often, and are advertising AT&T bundles or new services -- like getting a free pizza when you upgrade to higher-end AT&T IPTV tiers.

As it stands, the fastest tier AT&T offers is the company's "Max" 18Mbps/1.5Mbps U-Verse tier, which costs $65 a month as part of a TV bundle. We're now seeing rumblings in our forums that the carrier may unveil a $75, 24Mbps downstream 2Mbps upstream tier in the middle of August.

Users in our AT&T U-Verse forum are tracking AT&T's release of some free new functionality for the company's IPTV customers. "Phase 2" upgrades of the service now allows customers to record, delete or schedule recordings from any box in the house -- instead of just the primary DVR. In addition to the new recording functionality, AT&T appears to have fixed several persistent bugs (like dropped audio under some optical connections) and tweaked the service's GUI, with many users saying they the channel guide is more responsive. As part of this latest U-Verse upgrade, AT&T's also giving High Speed Internet Max customers a free 20% boost in downstream speed from 10Mbps to 12Mbps.

Last week New York Representative Eric Massa introduced a bill aimed at stopping ISPs from nickel and diming consumers with steep overage charges. AT&T reacted swiftly -- claiming their metered billing trials in Reno and Beaumont are about being fair to grandmothers, and have absolutely nothing to do with protecting U-Verse TV revenues from Internet video.

AT&T this morning twittered the fact that the nation's largest broadband carrier has launched a new website dedicated to helping consumers understand the AT&T privacy policy. With AT&T clearly interested in behavioral advertising, and a new FTC boss who says privacy is his his primary focus, AT&T's putting a friendly new face on privacy ahead of a massive revamping of their privacy policy this August. The website is complete with superficially-educational videos from several key AT&T privacy executives, promising you your privacy is of the utmost importance to the company. Let's just forget that whole funneling data wholesale to the government (pdf) thing and be friends, shall we?

According to a note by UBS Research analyst John Hodulik, AT&T is slowing the deployment of their "next-generation" VDSL IPTV service, U-Verse. Hodulik says UBS initially 
expected AT&T to pass 11 million homes in 2009, but has re-guesstimated that AT&T will pass just 4-5 million homes this year.

It looks like AT&T is seriously exploring the use of 802.11n wireless connections to beam HD video around the home, potentially shaving hours (or at least minutes) off of a typical U-Verse install. AT&T currently uses HomePNA technology for in-home networking.

AT&T's decision to run FTTN instead of FTTH has remained a sticking point, with AT&T's top U-Verse speed (after video) sitting at 18Mbps downstream for customers within range. While that speed's nothing to laugh at, it's quickly being overshadowed by Comcast deployment of 50Mbps DOCSIS 3.0, arriving in all Comcast markets by the end of 2010.

Industry analyst Dave Burstein notes that phone companies may have captured upward of 55% of all net new broadband customers last quarter, a turnaround he credits to cheap DSL during a recession, but which is also thanks to FiOS (299,000 new customers) and U-Verse (284,000 new customers). While stock jocks like Craig Moffett have enjoyed criticizing infrastructure investment because it doesn't provide impatient investors with immediate returns, both U-Verse and FiOS are helping the telcos weather the recession, offset a decline in traditional DSL customers, and counter the cable triple play VoIP threat. A telco market share of 55% would be up from 46% in the first quarter of 2008. Comcast unveils their Q1 earnings on Thursday.

AT&T issued their first quarter earnings this morning, which indicate the nation's largest broadband company added 471,000 broadband subscribers, 359,000 of which were U-Verse and DSL customers. According to AT&T, the carrier added 284,000 net U-verse TV customers, giving them 1.3 million total subscribers and 16.7 million broadband customers in total. The carrier beat most Wall Street estimates, posting a net income of $3.1 billion on revenue of $30.6 billion. AT&T added 1.6 million iPhones in the first quarter, down from 1.9 million in Q4 and 2.4 million in Q3. "We are seeing strong broadband and voice attach rates," for their U-Verse services, AT&T spokesman Seth Bloom tells us.