New York – AT&T expects to
break its previous single-quarter smartphone-sales record when the fourth
quarter is finished, AT&T senior EVP/CFO John Stephens said here during a
UBS conference.
AT&T sold about 6 million
smartphones in the first two months of the fourth quarter, and because December
is traditionally one of the carrier’s strongest sales months, AT&T expects
to break its previous single-quarter smartphone record of 6.1 million, he said
during UBS’s 39th Annual Global Media and Communications Conference.
Stephens attributed the smartphone
surge in part to a higher number of handset upgrades from consumers waiting for
the launch of the new iPhone 4S. The carrier activated more than 1 million
iPhone 4S phones in the first five days the device was available, and he said
sales “remain strong.”
AT&T will turn on additional
4G LTE markets, including New York City, this month as part of its previously
announced plan to bring LTE to markets with 70 million people by the end of the year, Stephens added.
