Verizon Q4 solid, IoT revenue $690 million for 2015

Verizon added 1.5 million net wireless connections in the fourth quarter as its earnings were better than expected.

The wireless subscriber additions were in line with most analysts' expectations, but lower than the 1.99 million additions a year ago.

The company delivered fourth quarter adjusted earnings of $1.32 a share and 89 cents net. Wall Street was expecting earnings of 88 cents in the fourth quarter.

Verizon said earnings were affected by mark-to-market valuations for pensions and benefit plans.

Fourth quarter revenue for Verizon was $34.3 billion, up 3.2 percent from a year ago. For 2015, Verizon's revenue was $131.6 billion, up 3.6 percent.

On the Internet of things front, Verizon said its IoT unit had fourth quarter revenue of $200 million. For 2015, IoT revenue was $690 million.

Other key points:

• Verizon added 4.5 million retail connections for 2015.
• Postpaid churn for retail was 0.96 percent in the fourth quarter.
• Verizon added 906,000 4G smartphones in the fourth quarter. Net ads were 449,000. Tablet additions were 960,000 in the fourth quarter.
• Verizon ended with 112.1 million retail connections.
• There were 99,000 new Fios Internet connections added in the fourth quarter and 20,000 net additions for video.