AT&T (NYSE: T) said 4Q profit rose 17 percent to $1.9 billion, helped by mergers with BellSouth and Cingular that added a record number of subscribers. Profit, excluding merger-related costs and other special items, rose 38.5 percent from a year earlier to $2.4 billion, or 61 cents a share. Net income rose to $1.94 billion, or 50 cents a share, from $1.66 billion, or 46 cents, a year earlier, the San Antonio, TX-based telco said Thursday. Other highlights:
-- The company added 383,000 high-speed Internet subscribers in the fourth quarter to bring its total to 8.5 million, up 1.6 million from a year earlier. AT&T said it is spending $4.6 billion on constructing U-Verse, its internet TV service. The company said that U-Verse, currently available in 11 markets, is aiming to be in as many as 19 million homes. The construction of the U-Verse network cost the company 6 cents per share in 2006. It will subtract 9 cents to 11 cents from earnings this year, excluding any construction in BellSouth’s former territory.
-- AT&T’s 4Q wireless revenues totaled $14.5 billion, up 22.3 percent from $11.8 billion reported in the fourth quarter of 2005.
-- AT&T’s wireless operations had 32 million active data customers and delivered nearly 180 million multimedia messages along with 12 billion text messages.
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Related: AT&T U-Verse Rollout Maintains Slow Pace, Limited Access