AT&T Inc

AT&T, the biggest U.S. telephone company by revenue, said on Thursday its profit fell to $2.5 billion, or 42 cents per share, from $3.1 billion, or 53 cents per share in the same quarter a year ago.

The latest profit number includes a $1 billion non-cash charge related to the recent overhaul of the U.S. healthcare system that the company announced last month. Without that charge, profit would have been 59 cents a share, higher than the average analyst estimate of 54 cents a share according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Revenue rose 0.3 percent from a year earlier to $30.6 billion, compared to the average analyst expectations of $30.7 billion.

AT&T said it added 512,000 postpaid subscribers, which are seen as the most valuable because they pay monthly bills and commit to long term contracts.

This compared with the average expectation for 478,000 from five analysts contacted by Reuters but was down from 897,000 the year before.

(Reporting by Ritsuko Ando and Sinead Carew, editing by Dave Zimmerman)

AT&T