AT&T Customers Stay With Carrier Despite iPhone Competition

Despite AT&T receiving competition in iPhone sales from Sprint and Verizon, customers aren't leaving the carrier so quickly.

Churn has not moved at all, President of Emerging Devices for AT&T Glen Lurie told gatherers at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecom conference in Barcelona on Wednesday, according to MarketWatch. Churn refers to the rate customers move into or out of a relationship with a company.

The most recent Apple creation, the iPhone 4S, hit stores in mid-October. AT&T announced it activated more than 1 million devices just six days later.

In October, Sprint announced it would begin carrying the iPhone. Sprint is attempting to lure customers over from the larger carriers by providing unlimited data plans, while providers such as AT&T use a tiered data plan determined by data usage.

AT&T, the second largest wireless carrier behind Verizon, became the first company to sell the iPhone in 2007. In February of this year, Verizon became the second company to begin iPhone sales.

Shares of AT&T are down 0.51 percent to $29.10 in early afternoon trading.