NEW YORK - AT&T says its earnings fell 23.6 percent in the fourth quarter, narrowly missing analyst estimates, as rising costs offset strong performance in the wireless business.

The country's largest telecommunications provider said Wednesday it earned $2.404 billion, or 41 cents per share, in the last three months of 2008. That's down from $3.14 billion, or 51 cents per share, a year earlier.

Excluding items, AT&T says it earned 64 cents per share, missing the average estimate of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters by a penny.

It says revenue rose 2.4 percent to $31.1 billion. That is slightly short of analyst expectations at $31.3 billion.