EARNINGS ROUNDUP / AT

Earnings at AT&T; Inc. fell 24% in the fourth quarter, narrowly missing analyst estimates, as sales of heavily subsidized iPhones exceeded expectations.

The country’s largest telecommunications provider said it earned $2.40 billion, or 41 cents a share, in the last three months of 2008. That was down from $3.14 billion, or 51 cents, a year earlier.

Excluding items like merger and severance costs, AT&T; earned 64 cents a share, missing the average estimate of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters by a penny.

Revenue rose 2.4% to $31.1 billion. That was slightly short of analyst forecasts of $31.3 billion.

AT&T; shares fell 2 cents to $25.91.

The major draw for customers was Apple Inc.’s iPhone, for which AT&T; is the exclusive U.S. carrier. It added 1.9 million iPhone subscribers in the quarter.