AT&T BRACING FOR ROCKY FEW MONTHS

According to The Wall Street Journal, AT&T is getting ready to face a rough few months as their biggest rival, Verizon, is set to launch the iPhone.

Chief Executive Randall Stephenson said "“It may be rocky in the beginning of the year, kind of volatile, hard to predict, but we think as we work through it and the market stabilizes, we’ll be able to grow through it.”

He also mentioned a few statistics that will have an impact. Of most importance is that over 90% of AT&T's iPhone subscribers are under contract. In order to switch to Verizon those subscribers would have to pay a somewhat hefty early termination fee. In addition, Stephenson stated that AT&T sold more than 4 million iPhones in Q4 even though there were credible rumors of the impending Verizon iPhone (of course there have been credible rumors of the iPhone going to Verizon since 2008 as well).

To help counter Verizon's entry into AT&T's iPhone space, Stephenson said "We have not been very aggressive in the Android portfolio and we’re bringing Android into the mix very aggressively this year.”