DALLAS (AP) - AT&T Inc. on Tuesday reported a quarterly profit that slightly missed Wall Street expectations as it added fewer customers on contracts and other core plans than it did the year before.
The wireless phone industry has been lowering prices and offering promotions to compete as more than 90 percent of U.S. adults now have cellphones.
The latest lure from the Dallas-based phone and Internet company is a new unlimited-data deal, unveiled this month, that requires wireless customers to sign up for the company's TV service too. AT&T acquired satellite TV provider DirecTV last year.
AT&T on Tuesday said its fourth-quarter net income came to $4.01 billion, compared with a $4 billion loss last year when it booked $10 billion in accounting charges.
Adjusted for one-time items, earnings per share were 63 cents, missing the average estimate of 64 cents from Zacks Investment Research.
Revenue rose 22 percent to $42.1 billion, bolstered by the DirecTV deal. Zacks predicted $43.06 billion.
The company said it added 526,000 postpaid, or core, customers, compared with 854,000 in the fourth quarter of 2014. It said "churn," or the customer turnover rate, was down.
AT&T said half a million customers signed up for its new unlimited-data deal. Existing customers were eligible for it, so those aren't necessarily new customers for the company.
The company says it is going to roll out more video-and-wireless offers.
AT&T shares slipped 2 percent to $34.68 in after-hours trading. The stock has gained 6.7 percent over the past 12 months.
For the year, the company reported profit of $13.35 billion, or $2.37 per share. Revenue was reported as $146.8 billion.