AT&T CEO: We'll push Android phones

NEW YORK (AP) — The CEO of AT&T Inc. today said the company will start "very aggressively" marketing smart phones based on Google Inc.'s Android software now that it will no longer be the exclusive carrier for Apple Inc.'s iPhone in the U.S.

So far, Verizon Wireless, AT&T's chief competitor, has been the biggest supporter of Android. But it will start selling the iPhone on Feb. 10, and is likely to shift resources away from Android.

In effect, AT&T and Verizon Wireless are set to swap strategies in the high-stakes smart phone market. Subscribers of high-end smart phones pay roughly twice every month as much as people with regular phones.

"We're going to be a heavy participant in the Android market this year, so you're going to see a significant shift in mix" of the phones sold by AT&T, Randall Stephenson told analysts on a conference call. Major makers of Android phones are Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc., Samsung Electronics Corp. and HTC Corp.

AT&T, the nation's largest telecommunications company, also provided an earnings forecast for the year that disappointed analysts, and said it signed up a net of just 400,000 new customers on contract-based wireless plans in the last three months of last year. It was the lowest quarterly number in at least five years.