• Cnet, Friday, July 24, 2009 1:17 PM

AT&T will not have an exclusive contract with Apple's iPhone forever, CEO Randall Stephenson admitted Thursday. Speaking at a Fortune magazine conference, Stephenson said, "There will be a day when you are not exclusive with the iPhone." However, he did not go in detail about the company's ongoing negotiations with Apple over extending AT&T's existing exclusivity contract, which runs out at the end of the year. The issue of when the telecom giant loses the exclusive on the iPhone has become a major issue for the company and its investors, Cnet's Ina Fried says.

Asked whether he is completely satisfied with AT&T's working relationship with Apple, Stephenson said, "On balance, I think it works really, really well--maybe as well as any strategic partnership we have. I don't know if I could get my wife to say that about me, so I don't think I could say that about a business partner."

He noted that AT&T does take a hit from the expense of new iPhone 3GS, but ultimately, it's an investment that yields customers who spend more each month and who are less likely to change service providers.

Stephenson also acknowledged issues with the quality of the company's wireless network, but said that all carriers have areas with weak service. "There's no greater cause of churn than network quality," he said, adding: "we have the lowest churn in the company's history."

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