iPhone-Enabled Verizon Meets Q1 Expectations

Yesterday we saw AT&T report it’s first quarter results after losing iPhone exclusivity, and today it’s the turn of the newly iPhone-enabled Verizon (NYSE:VZ, news, filings).  And Verizon, like AT&T, turned in a largely unsurprising report.  Revenues of $26.99B and earnings per share of $0.51 either met or were  slightly above expectations, depending on one’s point of view.  During the less than two months the iPhone was for sale, Verizon Wireless  apparently activated 2.2M of them – so it’s certainly a phenomenon that will have an increasing effect as the year goes on.  Overall, the company added 906M retail post-paid wireless subscribers – up from recent quarters.  Total wireless revenues of $14.3B were up 6.3% over the prior year, with data revenues rising 22.3% in the same period.

On the wireline side, they added 207K net FIOS Internet and 192K net FIOS TV customers and saw a 12.8% increase in strategic enterprise revenues.  That was of course counterbalanced by decreases in non-strategic data and voice revenues, but what else is new.  It amounted to $10.1B in revenues, down 2.2% over the same quarter last year.  Verizon’s wireline workforce is now about 92K, down 16K year over yearr even as adjusted for divested operations.  Most of that has been ‘as a result of incentive offers that led to voluntary separations’, but still that’s a lot of people – even if most did retire.

For Verizon though, there is no current distraction of a big M&A to push through.  Their year will be filled with stories of LTE and the infrastructure buildout to support it.

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Categories: Financials · ILECs, PTTs · Wireless