AT&T: 16.7 Million Broadband Customers > iPhone is keeping AT&T afloat

iPhone is keeping AT&T afloat

Romour is that the iPhone will come to the EVDO networks once LTE is launched; why would Apple want to stay with one carrier when there are 3 or 4 other HUGE celluar companies that are willing to pay them?

reply to fAcEtIOUs
When the gains from iPhone subscribers stop generating revenue, it might not make sense to continue the exclusive contract. At some point, it's just not worth the costs to try and keep iPhone exclusive. That point might already be here now.

reply to fAcEtIOUs

reply to baineschile

Because they are pissed at Comcast and TWC; the cable giants wont air their crappy network on basic cable.

reply to fAcEtIOUs
Conjecture? I'd like to see what percentage of these adds were iPhone subs.

I am assuming this
»tech.yahoo.com/news/ap/20090422/···rns_at_t

FTA
"The iPhone has been a drag on AT&T's earnings since last summer, when the latest model, the "3G," launched. AT&T has been subsidizing each phone by hundreds of dollars, with the aim of making its money back on service fees, since iPhone users pay 60 percent more per month than other customers.

That strategy started to pay off in the first quarter. Margins in the wireless business are now back almost to where they were before the launch of the iPhone 3G, despite the sale of 1.6 million iPhones in the quarter. Sales were down from 1.9 million from the fourth quarter, but were strong for a non-holiday quarter without a new iPhone model.

Apple's phone also helped AT&T avoid a trend analysts are expecting to see this year: more customers signing up for prepaid service than for expensive contract-based plans. Only a quarter of new subscribers at AT&T chose prepaid in the quarter, compared to more than half at T-Mobile USA."

reply to fAcEtIOUs
I'm not the one who made the assertion.

reply to jmn1207

reply to jmn1207
I suspect that will be the case.

AT&T wants to keep iPhone exclusive (keeping many adds, and more importantly, keeping customers from leaving)

Apple wants revenue - doesn't care where it gets it from

AT&T would not like to have to pay as much as it does for iPhone customers (takes a while to break even), and customer adds on the decline.

Being GSM/HSDPA based, T-Mobile would be an 'easy' add, radio change for AWS 3G.

A little more work - chipset change + FCC for EVDO for it to go to Sprint/Verizon.

HSPA/LTE would be the next logical step.

reply to JoesphM

While I'm sure it won't generate anywhere near the same numbers that the iPhone was responsible for, here is hoping that the Palm Pre fosters some much needed customer adds for Sprint. On paper, it looks like my dream phone. Unless it gets creamed in some early reviews, I'll be dropping my Sprint Curve for this device, no matter what ETF charges I might incur.

If Sprint offered anything decent with Rev. A AND WiFi, plus respectable battery life, I'd switch now. Heck, if Verizon had anything, I'd switch to their service. The Samsung Omnia was extremely close, but they only brought GSM to the table, and 3G was left behind. (Doh!) Sorry Verizon Samsung, but you just missed with that one.

Edit: I meant Samsung, not Verizon. When I was looking for a new phone in October of last year, the Samsung was GSM only, at least in the US.

reply to odreian615

That only speaks to who bought the 3G phones (whether they were new (40%) or current AT&T customers upgrading (60%)), not how many of all new adds picked the iPhone over a different brand AT&T phone or when you take into account phone subsidized how much net revenue these iPhone customers are responsible for.

reply to fAcEtIOUs
That's a pity...AT&T doesn't deserve to stay afloat.