After reporting Q4 2010 earnings yesterday, AT&T has published additional statistics on the number of mobile broadband connections the telecommunications company has facilitated in the last quarter. The company says that in terms of emerging devices (this includes non-phone wireless connections), 2 million connected devices were added to the network in the quarter.
Included in this category are what AT&T refers to as embedded computing devices, which are tablets, netbooks and laptops. AT&T says that more than 6 million connected devices have been added to the network over the past five quarters. The total number of emerging devices, including postpaid and prepaid embedded computing devices, connected to the AT&T network – both for consumers and businesses is nearly 11 million.
Business users and consumers can use AT&T wireless connection plans for more than 940 specialty devices, including eReaders, netbooks, digital photo frames, personal navigation devices, telematics, home security monitoring and smart grid devices. The company says its wireless network will add support for a number of additional devices this year, including Vitality’s GlowCaps, which are pill caps designed to help patients take medications regularly through a series of reminders, including light, sound, text message and phone call alerts.
AT&T will provide a wireless plan for the Pandigital Novel eReader and the new Garmin GTU 10. And AT&T says that it has signed an agreement with BMW to add a suite for safety and infotainment services to the car company’s future models.
Of course, as the iPhone arrives at Verizon, wireless connections via non-phone devices could be a growing business for AT&T. The company saw 27.4 percent growth in wireless data revenues, up $1.1 billion versus the fourth quarter of 2009, driven by messaging, Internet access, access to apps and more.
It should be interesting to see if this particular sector will continue to grow for AT&T.