AT&T wireless data revenues near $4 billion in Q4

AT&T reported net income of $3 billion for the fourth quarter of 2009, increasing more than 25 percent from year-ago totals thanks largely to continued subscriber growth. AT&T's mobile operating revenue rose 7.6 percent to $13.8 billion compared to year-ago revenue of $12.9 billion. AT&T's total wireless subscriber base rose to 85.1 million, which the operator credited to adoption of smartphones and emerging hardware such as ereaders, netbooks and navigation devices.

Wireless data revenue from messaging, access to applications and related services increased $805 million to $3.9 billion, up 26.3 percent year-over-year. AT&T credited strong data growth for postpaid subscriber ARPU increasing 2.6 percent versus the year-earlier quarter to $61.13; postpaid data ARPU reached $19.16, up 17.5 percent year-over-year. Text messages grew 70 percent over Q4 2008 to 70 percent, and multimedia messages more than doubled to 2 billion.

For more on AT&T's Q4 2009 results:
- read this release

For more on the Q4 earnings season:
- check out our complete coverage here