AT&T Activates 1.6 Million iPhone 3Gs in First Quarter of 2009

AT&T today announced its financial results for the first quarter of 2009, and among the highlights was the announcement that AT&T had activated 1.6 million iPhone 3Gs during the quarter. Continuing a trend seen in previous quarters, customers new to AT&T accounted for 40% of iPhone 3G activations.

In the first quarter, AT&T's iPhone 3G activations totaled more than 1.6 million, more than 40 percent of them for customers who were new to the company. AT&T's U.S. iPhone exclusive continues to deliver subscribers with ARPUs (average monthly revenues per subscriber) that are approximately 1.6 times higher and churn rates that are significantly lower than the company's overall postpaid subscriber base.

While AT&T's 1.6 million activations were down from 1.9 million in fourth quarter of 2008 and 2.4 million in the third quarter of 2008, the decline was not unexpected given the iPhone's product cycle. Overall, AT&T saw a net gain of 1.2 million wireless subscribers for the quarter. Wireless revenue rose 9.8% year-over-year and made up 42.1% of AT&T's total revenue, up from 38.5% in the year-ago quarter.

Apple will release its earnings report for the second fiscal quarter (first calendar quarter) of 2009 later today.