AT&T earnings drop 23.6 percent, despite strong iPhone sales

While AT&T added 1.9 million Apple iPhone 3G subscribers during the fourth quarter of 2008, and the giant's overall revenues also rose, the company has reported an earnings dip of 23.6%.

AT&T also experienced strong growth across its wireless business, with revenues of $12.9 billion for the quarter, an increase of 13.2 percent over the final quarter of 2007.

The telco service provider added 2.1 million new wireless subscribers, and 1.9 million of these were iPhone users, according to quarterly results released today. AT&T saw strong growth, too, in its U-Verse broadband and TV service, adding a total of 264,000 new TV subscribers in the fourth quarter.

Its traditional voice calling service slumped, though, with voice revenue falling 10.3%, and primary local-phone lines in service plummeting 11.4%.

Meanwhile, the company spend more money on operations this year, eating into profits.

AT&T's adjusted operating expenses for the quarter amounted to $24.5 billion, in contrast to $23.1 billion. To help trim these expenses, the company announced plans in December of last year to lay off 12,000 employees.