AT&T Mobility proved a much stronger revenue and subscriber engine than rival Verizon Wireless during the fourth quarter, making healthy gains across the board despite the slowing economy.

To start with, the cellular carrier more than trumped arch rival Verizon Wireless customer growth, netting 2,095,000 new subscribers – almost double Verizon’s 1.2 million. And unlike Verizon Wireless, that intake was not a major slowdown compared to prior quarters, beating the third quarter’s 1.98 million net additions even if it was behind the 2.68 million net additions posted in the fourth quarter 2007.

For the full year, AT&T Mobility attracted 6,699,000 new customers – again, outpacing rival Verizon Wireless’ 6.3 million 2008 intake. At the end of the quarter the carrier also still held top position in overall customer count with 77 million, but going forward Verizon’s acquisition of Alltel Wireless in January will give it the 80 million and the overall lead.

AT&T Mobility also managed to lower its churn rate for the quarter to 1.6% compared to 1.7% in the third quarter and in the fourth quarter 2007. Churn among highly prized post-paid customers totaled 1.2%, flat compared to 1.2% in the third quarter and 1.2% in the prior fourth quarter.

Similarly, it also saw a modest improvement in average revenue per user, despite industry predictions that would fall given consumer spending cutbacks during the ongoing recession. Total wireless ARPU came in at $50.82, just two cents more than the $50.80 ARPU in the third quarter but well ahead of the $50.28 in the fourth quarter 2007.

The overall ARPU increase came thanks to data ARPU, which jumped $1.20 during the quarter to $13.50 compared to $12.30 in the third quarter. It also was well ahead of the $10.01 level in the prior fourth quarter.

That pushed total data revenue to $3.07 billion – again, a major leap from the $2.73 billion in the third quarter and $2.03 billion in the fourth quarter a year ago.

In the larger revenue picture, AT&T Mobility also saw all levers trending upward, netting $12.86 billion , up from $12.62 billion in the third quarter and $11.36 billion in the prior fourth quarter.

Net income also climbed to $2.62 billion from $2.32 billion in the third quarter and $1.88 billion in the fourth quarter a year ago.

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