Verizon shows FiOS, Wireless gains
Verizon reported solid customer gains for its FiOS TV and Internet services and wireless business in the third quarter.
By the numbers, Verizon added 202,000 new FiOS TV customers for 717,000 total as of Sept. 30. The company, the second largest telecom provider after AT&T, added 229,000 new FiOS Internet customers for 1.3 million total. And Verizon's wireless business remains strong with 1.6 million net customer additions for 61.8 million total (the figures exclude wholesale customers). The retail churn rate at Verizon Wireless was 1.21 percent at retail and 0.96 percent retail post paid.
Those aforementioned tallies were detailed in Verizon's third quarter earnings report. Verizon reported third quarter earnings of 44 cents a share on revenue of $23.8 billion. Excluding charges, Verizon reported earnings of 63 cents a share, a penny ahead of Wall Street estimates.
The takeaways from the report reveal the following:
- Verizon--and to a lesser degree AT&T--are putting the heat on cable companies. Comcast's results alluded to increased competition. FiOS Internet is available to 6.5 million premises in 16 states. FiOS TV was available to 4.7 million premises.
- Apple's iPhone deal with AT&T doesn't seem to be affecting Verizon Wireless much. Nevertheless, the iPhone impact bears watching over time since contracts lock in potential switchers.
- Verizon has 1.5 million video customers if you include the company's partnership with DirecTV. However, FiOS TV, which has added 600,000 customers in the last 12 months, has quickly become almost half of Verizon's video tally.
- Total broadband connections (DSL and FiOS) are 8 million, up 21.3 percent from a year ago. DSL still dominates the subscriber base as FiOS accounts for 1.3 million of those subscribers.
- Verizon Business, the enterprise access unit formed from the acquisition of MCI, had third quarter revenue of $5.3 billion, up 2.2 percent from a year ago. Verizon says its business customers are buying IP managed services along with Ethernet and optical ring services.