AT&T’s profits are down, however the carrier continues to be smiling

There’s excellent news and bad news in AT&T’s third quarter report. The carrier’s profit dropped to $3.6 billion for the quarter — that’s down from $12.32 billion from this time last year. That drop is due partly to the lack of iPhone exclusivity (a question recently compounded with the addition of Sprint as a carrier for the 4S) and the truth that the corporate pulled in profits from the sale of assets in 2010. AT&T activated 2.7 million iPhones during Q3, a marked drop over previous quarters. At the up side of items, the sale of Android devices has greater than doubled, year over year. AT&T added 2.1 million wireless subscribers, passing 100 million, which the carrier seems quite happy with , as evidenced by the exceedingly chipper video below.

Update: AT&T dropped us a line to indicate that the gains from a one-time tax settlement also significantly contributed to the company’s 2010 profit and by extension the drop in profits year-over-year.

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This post is tagged: 100 million, exclusivity, quarter report, tax settlement, wireless subscribers