Add to del.icio.us     Digg this

Oct. 28, 2008

Verizon Wireless says its net profit grew by 31 percent in the third quarter as mobile service did better than expected, while its traditional landline business continued to decline.

Verizon earned $1.67 billion, or 59 cents per share, up from $1.27 billion, or 44 cents a share, for the comparable 2007 period.

Revenue rose a little over 4.1 percent to $24.7 billion. Excluding charges for job cuts and certain merger costs, Verizon earned 66 cents per share, matching the average estimate of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters. They were expecting $24.52 billion in revenue.

Verizon Wireless is a joint venture with Vodafone Group PLC. All of its $12.7 billion in quarterly revenue but only 55 percent of its $3.47 billion in operating income are recorded on Verizon's books.

Verizon Wireless added 1.5 million new subscribers in the quarter, more than most analysts had expected, particularly after AT&T reported adding 2 million subscribers in the period. Of those, nearly 1 million were people who came over from other wireless carriers to get the iPhone, which is exclusive to AT&T.

Verizon Wireless also added 600,000 subscribers through the acquisition of Rural Cellular Corporation, and ended the quarter with 70.8 million customers.

Verizon Chief Executive Ivan Seidenberg said "although the capital markets and economy may currently present some challenges, we will continue to execute on our business plan and invest for future growth."

For the company's traditional landline phone business, losses of home lines actually increased. Verizon had 2.9 million fewer home phone lines than a year ago, a 12 percent decrease.

Verizon otherwise didn't give much indication that the economic slowdown was affecting it.

Verizon lost 96,000 DSL subscribers in the quarter, fewer than the 133,000 it lost in the previous quarter. It added 233,000 new subscribers to its FiOS fiber-optic TV service.

Add to del.icio.us     Digg this

    This article was featured on Business 5.0 and on Tech Blog.

Source: Verizon Wireless.