• by David Goetzl , July 23, 2009

AT&T continued to add subscribers to its U-verse telco TV offering in the second quarter, although at a slower pace than the previous three months. The company signed up 248,000 new customers -- 15% fewer than in the January-March period.

Overall, however, AT&T now has 1.6 million customers, more than all but six cable operators.

Cable operators prompted AT&T to move aggressively with its own TV service by partly infringing on its turf via triple-play bundles of phone, broadband and TV service. U-verse allows AT&T to offer those packages, as well as quad plays that also include wireless.

AT&T said 75% of U-verse customers receive a triple- or quad-play bundle.

AT&T also said that of the homes now eligible to receive U-verse, a double-digit percentage are signing up. That number is in the high teens in areas where U-verse has been marketed for 18 months or more.

AT&T made the announcement as it released second-quarter results on Thursday. In its announcement, it touted U-verse as a growth driver. (The company overall saw consolidated revenues drop slightly to $30.7 billion, compared to $30.9 billion in the same quarter a year ago.)

U-verse is "driving improvement and stability in our customer business," CFO Rick Lindner said on a conference call.