By Marina Lopes
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - AT&T Inc said on Wednesday its quarterly revenue rose but by less than Wall Street anticipated as a wave of subscribers plugged into the network using pre-purchased devices.
The company cut its full-year consolidated revenue growth outlook for 2014 to 3-4 percent from 5 percent.
AT&T said 400,000 subscribers brought their own devices when signing up for service this quarter, instead of purchasing one at an AT&T store.
"While those 400,000 customers don't bring us much, if anything on revenue and have caused an adjustment on our thought on revenue, they don't bring any expense either so we'll take those (customers) any time we can get them," said Chief Financial Officer John Stephens.
The increase in bring-your-own-device customers also decreased the rate of customers singing up for AT&T's equipment financing plans, which provide devices at lower up-front costs.
AT&T shares fell 1.5 percent to $34 in extended trade after closing at $34.50 on the New York Stock Exchange.
The company reported a record low number of contract customer defections, but average revenue per phone user fell 8 percent from a year earlier.
AT&T added 2 million new wireless customers and 785,000 contract subscribers in the quarter.
Wireless service revenue was flat while equipment revenue increased 44 percent.
The No. 2 U.S. mobile provider said on Wednesday that excluding items it earned 63 cents per share, a penny below Wall Street expectations, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Revenue rose 2.5 percent to $33 billion from $32.2 billion in the year-ago quarter.
(Reporting by Marina Lopes; Editing by Chris Reesel, David Gregorio and Bernard Orr)
