Verizon Q2 2011: 2.2m New Customers But iPhone 4 Sales Slow

Verizon has announced its Q2 2011 financial results, adding twice as many subscribers as AT&T managed and activating 2.3m iPhone 4 handsets. The carrier saw its consolidated revenue hit $27.5bn, up 6.3-percent compared to the same period a year ago, while wireless data revenues rose 22.2-percent and ARPU (the monthly average revenue per user) climbed 3.2-percent to $54.12. However, iPhone 4 sales slowed over the quarter in comparison to Q1 2011.

Verizon sold 2.2m CDMA iPhone 4 handsets in the seven weeks of Q1 2011 that the smartphone was on sale, meaning that while more iPhones were sold in Q2, it was at a comparatively slower pace. Sales of 4G LTE devices hit 1.2m units, and Verizon claims that 63-percent of smartphone buyers were new to the segment. Of the 2.2m new connections added in the three month period between April and June inclusive, 1.3m were retail postpaid customers while 890,000 were of wholesale and other connections.

The carrier says it is still on track to have 4G operating in over 175 markets across the US by the end of the year, offering LTE service to a population of more than 185m. Unlike AT&T's strong smartphone sales, however – only around 30-percent of AT&T's activations in Q2 were regular phones – Verizon's smartphone sales were still in the minority, at 36-percent.

More information in Verizon's presentation deck here [pdf link]