AT&T Earnings

Top US phone company AT&T reported a rise in quarterly profit led by strong growth in its wireless business, although traditional phone subscriptions fell. Toby Jorrin / AP

AT&T's first-quarter profit rose to $3.46 billion, or 57 cents per share, from $2.85 billion, or 45 cents a share in the same quarter a year earlier. Profit before items, such as merger-related costs and severance charges for recently announced job cuts, totaled 74 cents, matching the average Wall Street estimate as compiled by Reuters Estimates.
Quarterly revenue rose 6.1 percent to $30.7 billion, compared with the Reuters estimate of $30.6 billion.
The company has been banking on mobile phones for growth as traditional home phone users decline. Primary retail consumer access lines fell 6.2 percent year-on-year.

It is also selling high-speed Internet and video services to retain customers and compete with cable service providers.
The company said high-speed Internet connections among its consumer and business customers rose 13.9 percent from a year earlier to 14.6 million.
Subscribers to its advanced, U-verse TV service rose to 379,000, a net gain of 148,000 for the quarter, and the company said it was on track to sign up more than 1 million by the end of 2008.
AT&T was formed through a series of mergers including SBC and BellSouth, and analysts have said savings from those mergers has also been boosting its earnings growth in the past few years