AT&T hints at end to iPhone exclusivity

Thanks to the iPhone 3GS, AT&T Mobility once again added a record number of subscribers in the third quarter of 2009. The company said that it added 2 million wireless subscribers in the quarter, bringing its total base to 81.6 million. In addition, AT&T said it activated 3.2 million iPhones, the company's largest amount to date, with nearly 40 percent of those activations from customers that were new to AT&T.

But AT&T's exclusive deal with Apple for the iPhone in the U.S. may soon be ending. The deal has been rumored end in 2010, and AT&T Mobility chief Ralph de la Vega implied that may indeed be true. This morning during the company's conference call with analysts, de la Vega said that even if the company loses its exclusivity, he believes AT&T will still have an advantage because the carrier supports an iPhone that uses HSPA 7.2 network technology, which AT&T is in the process of deploying. "The iPhone will work better on our network than on anyone else's network," he said.

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