While losing vocal abilities would be a major annoyance for me, it could be a career-killer for a pop singer. You'd think it would spell similar doom for one of the largest telecommunications companies in the world -- AT&T
While AT&T is seeing steady drops in revenue from its traditional wireline voice segment, these services still generate huge amounts of cash. But its recent earnings report shows just how dramatically both wireline and wireless voice services are declining in significance in terms of new growth. It's all about data now.
AT&T reported total revenue of $30.7 billion for the first quarter, up 6.1% year over year. Net income grew by 21.5%, to $3.5 billion, although these bottom-line results are colored significantly with expenses and gains related to AT&T's recent spate of mergers and consolidation. Even factoring these out, though, AT&T reported double-digit adjusted net income and earnings-per-share growth.
As usual, much of the growth comes from wireless. AT&T signed up 1.3 million new subscribers this quarter, a number that will be tough for competitors Sprint Nextel
I see two major trends pushing the wireless-data wave along: broadband-equipped laptops and the Apple
Apple has also forced other device manufactures like Nokia
More Foolishness: