AT&T profit falls but iPhone helps mobile

NEW YORK, USA: AT&T Inc on Thursday posted a smaller quarterly profit but revenue exceeded estimates as strong sales of Apple Inc's iPhone helped boost wireless subscriber growth, sending its shares up 4 percent in early trade.

AT&T posted a profit of $3.2 billion, or 54 cents per share compared with $3.77 billion, or 63 cents per share in the same quarter a year ago.

Revenue fell to $30.73 billion from $30.87 billion and compared with the average analyst expectation for $30.64 billion, according to Reuters Estimates.

AT&T added 1.4 million net subscribers in the quarter including 1.2 million retail monthly bill-paying customers. Analysts on average had expected 1.08 million subscribers according to six analysts contacted by Reuters.

The company had more than 2.4 millioniPhone activations in the quarter. More than a third of these customers were new to AT&T.

Its shares were up 4 percent to $25.85 in premarket trading.