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Of those people that purchased the new Apple 3G iPhone this summer, some 30 percent of them defected to AT&T from other networks, according to a report out today from analysis firm The NPD Group. With about 23 percent of people switching carriers between June and August, that’s a lot of churn, but since two-thirds of the AT&T iPhone newcomers came from Verizon (47 percent) or Sprint (19 percent), both of whom have good 3G networks, my guess is defectors were seduced by getting comparable speeds on a hot phone now available at a reasonable price.

When the iPhone launched on the pokey EDGE network last year, the Apple faithful flocked to the device, but the slow network triggered a flood of complaints. The newer version launched in June (and went on sale in July) with a lower price tag and faster speeds. I imagine a mix of the two is what tempted those on the fence, and made the iPhone 3G the top-selling smartphone during the summer months, according to NPD. It was followed by the BlackBerry Curve, BlackBerry Pearl and the Palm Centro.

That is mostly good news for consumers, who are making clear to carriers that network quality and ability to get online are important to them. Now that carriers recognize how much consumers value the 3G experience, expect to see more phones optimized for web surfing — and more network upgrades.  However, the price sensitivity means that carriers aren’t likely to abandon the subsidized handset model anytime soon, which gives rise to evils like two-year contracts and high termination fees. This might feel bitterly ironic to those consumers who held off on the iPhone for a year because they were waiting for a better network. So far, many find the actual AT&T network and iPhone experience disappointing.

Elektrobit is showing off its reference design for a multimode 3G and satellite handset phone at the CTIA Wireless I.T. and Entertainment show this week in San Francisco, and it’s a far cry from the clunky satellite phones of yore. It first unveiled the phone in April, during the larger CTIA Wireless show. At that time Elektrobit said TerreStar, a network that plans to operate a combined terrestrial and satellite network, would use the phone, but since Terrestar was experiencing financial and management problems, few industry watchers got excited.

However in the five months since, TerreStar has signed an agreement with AT&T that allows for seamless hand-offs between AT&T’s 3G network and TerreStar’s satellite network. So a truly worldwide 3G phone (AT&T operates a GSM network) is getting closer, although it still relies on TerreStar launching its satellite next year. The deal with AT&T has me thinking that TerreStar is focusing less on the terrestrial aspects of its planned satellite and terrestrial network, which would lower its costs of building out a network and possibly keep the satellite company in the game.

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Sprint’s loss has certainly been AT&T’s gain. The San Antonio, Texas-based carrier reported its fourth-quarter results this morning, saying its profits more than doubled to $3.14 billion thanks to strong wireless growth that helped push sales to $30.3 billion.

AT&T (T) saw its wireless revenue hit $11.4 billion in the latest three-month period, driven primarily by data use and new customer adds — the number of wireless subscribers totaled 70.1 million by the end of the qaurter. Much of the credit for the $2 billion in wireless data revenue goes to the iPhone, as 40 percent of those buying iPhones are new AT&T customers. Smart phone subscribers, including the iPhone buyers, also tend to have double the ARPU of AT&T’s average wireless user.

In total AT&T added 2.7 million new wireless subscribers during the fourth quarter. But for those tempted to credit all of AT&T’s success in wireless data to the iPhone, consider that 9 million smart phones and devices are using AT&T’s 3G network, rather than the 2.5G EDGE network on which the 2.3 million AT&T iPhones run.

In other high-end services, AT&T saw its U-Verse subscribers almost double over the third quarter, to 231,000 from 126,000. Speaking on the conference call, AT&T CFO Rick Linder said the churn on U-Verse is comparable to churn rates for the company overall, but said he expects that number to level out at about 2 percent in the coming year. The U-Verse platform includes high-speed data and video services.

Broadband growth slowed in the fourth quarter, with 396,000 new customer adds compared with 499,000 for the third quarter. For the full-year 2007 period, 14.2 million customers received service, up 16.4 percent from from a year ago. However, revenue from those services were up only 13.7 percent year-over-year, at $1.4 billion. The economic weakness that’s expected in the coming year will likely continue to cause slower broadband adoption, Linder said in the conference call.

It may also cause a few hangups in the company’s wireline voice services as customers stop paying their bills. Although Linder said he expected wireless to be a defensive service through any economic turmoil, I do think revenue associated with media packages and downloads might dip. While businesses may pay for smart phones, if it comes down to paying AT&T or paying rent, I’m sure some of the consumer users might start to question their data plans.

Champions of a more open Internet could take a small bit of cheer from Yahoo’s plans, unveiled today, to open up its mobile platform to third-party developers. But the lack of a service-provider partner to endorse the idea is one clear sign that chief Yahoo Jerry Yang and all the other exclamation-pointers have a long way to go before they can expect to have a major impact on the growing market of the mobile web.

To be sure, plans like Yahoo’s Go or Google’s Android, which aim to bring the power of the open Internet to your handheld device, seem a preferable future than locked-in services like Verizon’s VCast. But without a service-provider partner to watch its back, Yahoo (YHOO) seems unable to answer a big looming question for open-Internet apps accessed via a cellular phone: How fast will the app perform, and how much will it cost to download the data?

Here at CES this year, there’s evidence of a trend toward more single-purpose devices or agreements (like Sony’s Skype/PSP deal, which has BT as the phone power behind it) that are complete with the service necessary to deliver the goods.

On the video side, LG has an interesting plan to give existing broadcasters a mobile outlet, just another one of the competing methods arising to bring TV to places you never thought possible. But like Yahoo’s ideas, such plans don’t mean a whole lot unless the service providers play along.

Since we weren’t able to view the Yang speech live here at CES (long bus lines and the absence of transporter technology kept us from getting from the Sands to the LVCC in time), we weren’t able to question Yahoo folks afterwards about service-provider buy-in for Go 3.0. But there’s plenty of time ahead for answers.

Paul Kapustka, former managing editor for GigaOM, now has his own blog at Sidecut Reports.

Verizon Wireless, a division of Verizon, is picking LTE — Long-Term Evolution — as the 4G technology for wireless broadband, and will start trials sometime in 2008.

LTE allows download rates of 100 Mbps and upload speeds of 50 Mbps for every 20 MHz of spectrum. It can handle 200 connections per 5 MHz. However, it is said to be spectrally more efficient and can better handle IP connections. LTE networks are based on the Internet Protocols. The traditional wireless vendors — Alcatel-Lucent (ALU), Nortel (NT), Motorola (MOT), Nokia-Siemens and Ericsson (ERICY) — are going to be hardware suppliers, while the usual handset makers will make devices for this trial. Vodafone (VOD), joint owner of Verizon Wireless, is also planning an LTE Trial for 2008.

That said, it will be a while before we see the actual 4G network rolled out. This technology evolution when complete will make Verizon’s (VZ) Open Access Development initiative more meaningful. The LTE evolution negates the GSM vs. CDMA debate, and it also promises global connectivity. In a recent chat, AT&T Mobility President & CEO Ralph de la Vega said that his company was going to migrate to LTE as the 4G solution. In such a scenario, you and I can then switch between the two services without worrying too much about handsets.