AT&T the official carrier of the iPhone in North America announced today along with its fiscal first quarter results that it had activated more than 1.6 million iPhones during the quarter.

The company which also reported a “1.2 million net gain in total wireless subscribers to reach 78.2 million” said that of the 1.6 million iPhone 3G activations 40-percent of those customers were new to the company.

Randall Stephenson, AT&T chairman and chief executive officer said in a statement; “I am particularly pleased with the success of our iPhone 3G initiative, which has driven strong high-end customer growth and delivered financial benefits ahead of our original outlook. Business and consumer expectations for mobility are on the rise, wireless innovation is flourishing and the opportunities ahead are substantial. AT&T is strongly positioned to lead in the next generation of wireless growth.”

Apple will announce its fiscal second quarter 2009 results later on today.