AT&T profit, revenue slip in Q1

AT&T reported a drop in net income for the second straight quarter, as well as a slight decline in revenue, as the telco giant posted its first-quarter earnings report Wednesday. AT&T still profited to the tune of $3.2 billion, but that was a 9 percent slide from the same quarter last year. The telco had reported a 23 percent drop in net income for the fourth quarter of 2008, but the first-quarter number was well ahead of that period's $2.4 billion profit. Meanwhile, revenue for the first quarter came in at $30.57 billion, a decline of less than 1 percent from the same quarter last year.

Wireless, broadband and TV services continued to be growth engines for the company as wireless revenue was up 10 percent to $11.6 billion, which included a 39 percent jump in revenue from wireless data. The company also added 284,000 U-verse TV customers during the quarter and now has 1.3 million TV customers overall. In both wireless and TV markets, AT&T continues to erase concerns that the overall economic crisis would soften its results in these areas.

Still, landline business challenges appear to be worsening, if anything, as AT&T reported a 12 percent drop in landline voice revenue to $8.5 billion.

For more:
- MarketWatch has this report [1]
- 24/7 Wall Street has this post [2]

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