AT&T reports record sub growth

The iPhone is certainly paying off for AT&T. The carrier, which reported its third quarter earnings this morning, added a net 2 million subscribers in the quarter, the highest third-quarter increase in the company's history. That 2 million figure surpassed analyst expectations, which were in the 1.5 million to 1.8 million range. The carriers total wireless subscriber base now tops 65.7 million.

During the operator's earnings call this morning, AT&T executives said that the company activated 1.12 million iPhones in the quarter and that more than 40 percent of those activations were new customers to AT&T.

Here's a breakdown of the other highlights:

ARPU: The company's wireless revenues totaled $10.9 billion, up 14.4 percent from the year-earlier quarter. ARPU was up 2 percent year over year to $50.82 in the quarter. Data revenues were also strong, up 63.9 percent year-over-year.

Churn: Average monthly subscriber churn was 1.7 percent. Postpaid churn was 1.3 percent, down 20 points from the third quarter 2006.

For more:
- see this press release [1]
- see Churn, ARPU, and sub-growth in our carrier metric charts here [2]

Related Stories:
270K iPhones sold in two days, 146K activated. Story [3]
AT&T nets 1.5M subscribers in Q2. Story [4]