AT&T profit hurt by cheaper wireless plans; fighting on price with T-Mobile

AT&T posted lower net income for the latest quarter due to cheaper cellphone plans it introduced as a response to aggressive pricing from smaller competitor T-Mobile US.

The Dallas company says it earned $3.55 billion, or 68 cents per share. That was down from $3.82 billion, or 71 cents per share, in the same quarter last year.

Excluding some one-time items, AT&T's earnings were 62 cents per share in the latest quarter, a penny shy of the average estimate of analyst polled by FactSet.

Revenue was $32.58 billion, up 1.6 percent from a year ago. Analysts polled by FactSet were expecting $32.24 billion in revenue.

AT&T, the second-largest cellphone company, is dueling with No. 4 T-Mobile US, which has shaken up the industry with innovative pricing plans.