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Something slipped my mind as I posted AT&T’s 2010 report earlier today: they’ve passed Verizon up in subscriber count, officially making them the nation’s number one carrier and knocking Verizon down to number two. They enjoy 94.1 million wireless subscribers, ahead of Verizon by 1.4 million. That’s going to be a nice tidbit for AT&T’s marketing campaign, isn’t it? But don’t forget that Verizon has yet to release their iPhone 4 – I expect we’ll be revisiting this story once both of these carriers’ Q1’11 numbers are released in a few months. Congratulations, AT&T!
yea until the iphone gets to verizon. They are way too expensive.
Verizon is still number one IMHO, and I’ve been with them for only 8 days. I was with AT&T before that for 2 1/2 years.
bah! who cares about #1 subscribers, especially when they are sheep on ATT, i care about actually being able to make a call and having reception where i live and customer support as well as a strong phone line-up
Not all AT&T customers are sheep. Some of us are able to do all of those things very well with AT&T. And some of us do not care about phone lineups, it is GSM and utilizes fairly common 3G bands.
Oh and I am getting 3G which is 2-3 times faster throughout most of my region (while AT&T will be late to the party for 4G, the falling back onto HSPA+ in areas where LTE is not strong will make it a superior user experience).
What you consider to be fairly common 3g bands are actually only common in north america. The rest of the world uses the not so common bands, which makes them the common bands.
although i have an ipod touch, i am not in love with the apple iphone, being said i never owned one either, but im sure there are alot of people dying to get there hands on one
I heard AT&T on the radio claiming to have the nations fastest 4G. They got the game F!@#ed up.
They are not number one. They add their tablets and air cards in with their amount of customers, Verizon doesn’t. If want to add that, they have 103 Million customers. Verizon is still number one.
Last year AT&T did very well with the new smart phones i think.
I don’t know why people hate on AT&T so much or any carrier in particular even just because they don’t use their service.
I left Verizon for AT&T long ago and now I have better service, a better signal and I pay $10 less. I can also buy any GSM phone I want, toss in my sim card and have a new phone rather then buying ONLY Verizon branded phones… AT&T is better for me.
Carriers very from person to person. Just because it is bad for you doesn’t make it bad for the world.
And as for the better nationwide coverage arguement… What do I care about having better coverage in areas I don’t live/never goto? o_O
Verizon’s total connections including m2m connections are 102.2 million.
Verizon doesn’t count their m2m stuff as subscribers. AT&T does count them.
I thought Verizon had 95.5 million? Yep, sorry, they’re still #1.
T-Mobile is bigger than Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint. People are clueless.
This article is incorrect because its comparing two different data points.
Here are the correct #’s
AT&T 86.2 million (excluding connected devices)
Verizon 94.1 Million (excluding connected devices)
AT&T 95.5 million (Including connected devices)
Verizon 102.2 million (Included connected devices)
Sources:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ilz5NiF9eLDTYueZn-MN87lccT1A?docId=6dd4ffcd96c440ae82ee348e7dff5b7a
http://venturebeat.com/2011/01/25/verizon-q4-2010-earnings/
I switched to AT&T for the iPhone (for my daughter), lower monthly bills, and the $15/mo data option. However, their mid and lower tier phones are absolutely horrible. My wife tried two models and both are simply unacceptable. AT&T needs to revamp their lineup now that their monopoly on the fruit phone is coming to an end.
WTF? This story had nothing to do with Android. I come here to read about Android! Not how many subscribers VZW has. Not how many ATT has and I definitely didn’t come here to read about how the iPhone is going to improve VZW’s sales. Please stop with fillers like this. I know I’m nit picking but I can go to engadget for this kind of news. I come here just for ANdroid.
who cares unless you get paid by one of them perso nally i hate all cell phone companys they rape charges on you and hidden charges and then your bill is 100 bucks for a cell phone comon now thats messed up that i am paying 100 bucks to use a phone my cable is 112 i remember the days my phone bill was 30 bucks now all cell phone companys overcharge and lie it sux
@Keegan: 86.2 million retail customers; 92.1 million total customers, after divestitures and conforming adjustments related to the Alltel acquisition.
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Source = Verizon: http://newscenter.verizon.com/press-releases/verizon/2010/Verizon-Reports-Strong-Wireless-FiOS-Customer-Growth-Increased-Enterprise-Revenues-Strong-Cash-Flow-in-2Q.html
AT&T is phenomenal in Texas. Since I got att there have been at least 10 instances (past month) where my wife had no bars and no data (tmobile) and I had full bars and 3G, even the middle of nowhere. I understand AT&T must really suck in the rest of the country since it gets such bad ratings, but in Texas AT&T can’t be beat, and that’s a large area with lots of people.
@Copolli: I didn’t say very common, I said fairly common. It is used throughout the Americas and many manufacturers make phones which support AT&T 3G bands (Samsung, Acer, Google and many more). My point was that in terms of phone selection, no CDMA network can even come close to AT&T.
@Davis: Agreed 100%. I live near Houston and get blazing fast 3G througout most of my region.
Why does people hate at&t? Because they suck! Can’t make a phone call, and their customer service is the worst.
Davis is right at&t is the best in Texas. No other carrier has service where I live.
@Deals,
Not in the states they aren’t…
@agx
Read the headline/topic …
@Quentyn Kennemer – Sorry, I didn’t know we were comparing Verizon’s 2Q10 numbers to AT&T’s 4Q10 numbers. So yes, in crazy financial results land, AT&T is bigger than Verizon.
This has been my experience. I live about 20 miles north of Houston. I have an AT&T smartphone provided by my company and a Verizon smartphone as my personal phone. I find that the AT&T 3G service is faster than Verizon’s but I lose reception quite a bit with the AT&T phone. With my Verizon phone the 3G service is a little slower but everywhere I go I have 3G service. Hence I prefer Verizon over AT&T but that is just one user’s opinion. Just a side note I did have T-Mobile as my original personal provider but the coverage was horrendous so I switched to Verizon. But to each their own, that’s why we have the choice of multiple carriers. I’m not a fanboy of any particular company just a fanboy of getting the best service in my area.
Why does anyone care who is Number 1. None of these carriers PAY YOU!!! Whichever carrier best suits your needs is what you go with. Why everyone is making a big deal out of this I don’t know.
Quentyn, you are wrong! You should check your “facts.” Verizon is still at the top. I’m amazed they still let you write. You make so many mistakes.
I was on AT&T for about 8 years then during and after the Cingular merger service went to crap. Every other call dropped and my signal actually got worse when the 2 networks combined. WTF? I left for Verizon 4 years ago and have no regrets despite the higher prices on VZW.
I got att and 3g everywhere around socal I never dropp bars an I go from the deserts to the beachs all day
who gives a shit? this website is about Android Phones, not about carrier superiority. this isn’t Tmonews.
ps vzw pwns
haha keep defending vzw and watch how dumb yall look when they play yall and change prices for they 4g data, yall go get screwed and watch how many dummies buy the 3g iphone for vzw, and get stuck with it when the 4g iphone is go drop this year, aye aye vzw stupid and yall stupid for praising them, ATT bitches, now yall go sit down somewhere
McDonalds is the nations biggest restaurant. Just saying.
yall
Who is Verizon? Oh yeah! Those idiots who talked a load of garbage about crapples product then signs them up to be their flagship phone. Lol. Losers! Doesn’t matter what number they’re at, they’ll screw you like a woman staring at Justin beiber.
I live in Silcon Valley, and had AT&T for about 4 years. I thought I had great service overall (writing off hiccups and problems with “well it’s not a landline afterall”), but not in the home that we eventually moved into. Then, I switched to Verizon, and found a completely superior carrier performance. I got 3G in the mountains on the way to Yosemite, only dropping out way out in the boondocks. I get signal virtually everywhere, where AT&T has trouble getting signal inside most buildings with substantial wiring, like labs and manufacturing facilities, and couldn’t even get good signal to that house that we moved into. It’s 1 block from a major shopping center with a Costco and other major retailers in it, and we had to hold either of our phones at a certain agle and not move from a certain spot or the call would drop every couple of minutes.
I’ve been a customer of Verizon, AT&T & Tmo and (from my experience) Verizon blows them all away in call quality and more importantly in customer service. ATT’s customer service is the worst. Just do a google search on ATT customer service and you’ll find literally hundreds of thousands of customer complaints across hundreds of forums. I’ll stick with Verizon, but you’re right, they all suck when it comes to pricing. Especially when Boost Mobile and Virgin offer 30-40 dollar unlimted everything plans and are coming out with decent smartphones. Can’t help but wonder how long that will last.
To me, this means nothing. The #1 carrier shouldn’t be how many subscribers you have, but how good the coverage is in the area you live in. For me, Verizon is a LOT better than AT&T where I live. However, there are a couple places an hour or two away where AT&T is superior. If I lived there, I would have AT&T.
My point is, you shouldn’t be with one carrier based on whether its ranked number one or not. It should be which gets you the best coverage where you live. Hell, I would have T-Mobile or even Boost if their coverage was better than Verizon here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FL7yD-0pqZg
i rest my case. :) ANDROID FTW!!!
I’ve had TMobile, AT&T, and now Verizon. TMo was the worst for me. AT&T was nice, but they don’t have as strong a signal nor do they have 3G in my area. Plus, I got tired of the iPhone and their other phones are less than desirable. Verizon has amazing call quality, Godly signal (3G), and they have cool phones. I get a military discount so I save. All I had to do was take an LES to the Verizon store. AT&T wanted me to have my base commander, the President, and Jesus Christ write a letter to show proof of me being in the military. But first, they had to send it into space, slingshot it around the moon, and then land back on Earth into a bird bath. Then they would have been satisfied. No joke. FOR ME, Verizon is the best. YMMV.
Who give a Damn who’s #1 or #2 they not going to refuve my monthly bill…and beside they’re getting Richer everyday because of us. Can’t wait till my contract expires …and switch to Tmo-
at&t is the best in california too
Before you post sensationalist stories in order to drive up click thru ad revenue, you should do your research. When Verizon reports customer numbers, we *do not* report “other devices” as part of our aggregate total. (Other devices = Tablets, machine to machine, kindle type connection devices, etc). ATT *DOES* tabulate that in the report. ATT total count is 95.5 million, which includes 9.3 million of these devices. Verizon’s count is 94.1 million, *NOT INCLUDING* 8.1 million of these other devices. So, by ATT count method, VZW is 102.2 million, and ATT is 95.5 million.
All of this info available freely, through 5 minutes of real, actual journalistic effort.
VZW held 96million customers and if this is true that AT&T did add some customers this last quarter and yes they pulled from VZW because everybody has hyped the Iphone to be the best phone ever which is not true and everybody sucks Apple’s D&*K. I’ll admit the Iphone is super user friendly a retard that does not know how to use a phone can figure it out. Android is a lot nice with software updates and all the diff customization you can do with it. Yes might lack some cool apps that Apple has but remember Apple had a head start. Email sucks on the Iphone Android a lot better for the email. And I must say FLASH is so sick on Android being able to watch a video on a full website. Everything you can do on Apple I can do On my Android I can even sync with Itunes with ITUNES ANGENT. Its easy its great and I do not remember when I dropped a phone call oh yeah because I have VERIZON lol silly people who left VZW to AT&T now you must feel so stupid for not waiting just a couple months longer VZW had a surprise and So did Apple and this joint venture was much needed for Apple more then VZW needing the Iphone not sure if nobody noticed VZW has been holding his own with AT&T having the Iphone exclusivity. VZW and Apple engineers have been testing the VZW Iphone something that Apple and AT&T did not do they just made an GSM phone to use on any GSM but Apple learned for getting creamed on AT&T network which they took lots of short cuts on 3G to be the first carrier on 3G and look what it got them for rushing there 3G network to be first got them last place. And now that VZW has pushed out there 4G LTE network which has been planned out for the last 4years working on the architecture of there LTE network has just put strain on AT&T to push there deployment and half ass there 4G plans like they did with 3G so AT&T customers enjoy living life in the I wanna kill my self lane thinking AT&T would get better lol got news for you people wake up smell the coffee VZW test everything for months that’s why AT&T gets all the cool devices because they do not test them. Manufactures offer the device and then AT&T thinks it will sell this is the downside to GSM and AT&T’s half ass network. Think about it! VZW FAN for life
Those numbers are going up slowly on February 3rd and sky rocketing on February 10th! The iPhone is going to bring Verizon back to the number 1 spot!
I’d be willing to bet the Verizon iPhone is going to be an epic fail. I know a lot of people on AT&T with iPhones and say the coverage is great. Those people have no reason to jump ship, especially when they are grandfathered into unlimited data plans. The people that have had problems, they’ve probably already switched carriers by now. I can’t see people remaining when their phones don’t work, it makes little sense. Add to that, it’s the exact same phone, for all practical purposes. I was really expecting Apple to make a slightly different version to entice people to “upgrade” but that’s not the case. Same old same old, with an emphasis on old.
Shit on both… VERIZON AND AT&T… THEY BOTH SUCK… Nothing beats SPRINT AND THE BEST SMARTPHONE DEVICE ON THE MARKET… THE HTC EVO 4G.. IPHONE IS GARGABE… VERIZON IS GARGABE AND AT&T SUCKS EGGS
What is wrong with people? I guess they just love being capped at 2gb and having dropped calls all the time?
Whatever Verizon is way better can yuu here me now AT&T :P oh wait only Verizon can hear me cz ur signal sucks
Intresting article but more intresting were people commenting on it, made my day. BTW I am with AT&T for very long time, I didn’t have any issue with the service. I own IP4, no issue there. I like Verizon as well, I like Sprint as well, T-Mobile I never thaught about but I like GSM, where I can pop the sim out and just insert another one.
OK MY point: the article just wants to point out which company is draining more money out of consumers pocket, no matter who is number one, consumer is always lossing because we are paying them to make them number one. It would be a different story if these company were reducing the service price, but if you look close the price are going up, and we are arguring which company is number one.
What, no “update” or follow-up to this bogus story? My point has been proven by Verizon themselves:
http://www.droid-life.com/2011/01/28/according-to-verizons-numbers-they-are-still-way-ahead-of-att-in-customers/
AT&T is the the number one telecom company bigger than verizon they make more money than verizon
att blows and thats all there is to it!! less bars in more places
Richard is a dumbass : )
How is this related to Android?