Verizon Q4 Earnings Up 15%; Wireless Data Revenues Soar

Verizon have announced their Q4 and full-year 2008 financial results, and thanks to strong performance from the wireless division it makes for positive reading.  Q4 earnings grew by 15-percent over the same period in 2007, while net income was $1.24 billion, helped by a year-on-year increase of 12.3-percent in total revenue by the wireless division and a huge 41.4-percent increase in data revenues. 

Churn, or loss of customers to rival networks, increased again in Q4, up to 1.3-percent, and net customer additions slowed to 1.4m.  Verizon Wireless acquired 1.5m new customers net in Q3 2008.  By the end of the year, total subscribers stood at 72.1m, excluding those on Alltel.

In wireline services, Verizon saw 303,000 net new FiOS TV customers and 282,000 net new FiOS Internet customers, together with a 14.3 percent increase in consumer ARPU in legacy telecom markets.  Overall revenues for the year amounted to $97.4 billion, up 4.2-percent on 2007.