14 DAY TRIAL // Verizon Communications announced its financial results for the first quarter of the ongoing year, and reported that it had registered a 5.3 percent rise in earnings, due to its recent acquisition of wireless operator Alltel. On the other hand, it seems that the competition with AT&T, the carrier that sells the iPhone in the country, has become more fierce lately.
During the first quarter of 2009, Verizon announced, it managed to see a net income of $3.2 billion, or 58 cents a share, just a little higher than the same period a year ago, when it reported income of $3.0 billion or 58 cents a share. In addition, the company also posted 26 percent increased revenue, boosted by the purchase of the regional service provider Alltel.
In the three-month period that ended March 31, Verizon Wireless added 1.3 million net customers, reaching a total number of subscribers of 86.6 million. At the same time, the company also notes that its total customer base includes 13.2 million users that came from Alltel. Due to the acquisition of Alltel last year, Verizon managed to become the largest mobile phone operator in the United States.
Verizon Wireless, the joint venture between Verizon and Vodafone, saw its churn rate growing from 1.19 percent to 1.47 percent, though the company usually has the lowest churn rate (the rate at which people change services) when compared to other major carriers in the US.
It seems that Verizon's Fios business is doing quite well too, as it managed to add 299,000 net TV customers during the first quarter, as well as 298,000 net Internet subscribers. The total number of Verizon's Fios TV subscribers rises up to 2.2 million, and the company also has a total Fios Internet subscribership of 2.8 million.
Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg stated recently that the company intended to partner with Apple to sell the iPhone on its upcoming 4G network, though AT&T was also reported to plan on extending its cooperation with the phone maker.