Verizon had a solid third quarter with $26.5 billion in revenue and $2.92 billion in profit but the company is not keeping pace with its main rival in terms of new customer addition.
Verizon Wireless added 997,000 new customers for the quarter, giving it a total of 93.2 million customers. AT&T had a massive third quarter with 2.6 million new wireless subscribers and AT&T is now within spitting distance of being the largest U.S. carrier with 92.8 million subscribers.
Of course, Verizon may have a trick or two up its sleeves. The company’s 4G LTE network will hit before the end of the year and an Apple iPhone is reportedly expected to land on Verizon in early 2011.
Here’s what Verizon pointed out about its wireless division for the quarter:
Verizon Wireless added 584,000 retail postpaid and 447,000 total retail customers in the quarter, excluding acquisitions and adjustments.
At the end of the third quarter, the company had 86.7 million retail customers, which represented 93 percent of the company’s wireless customers, the largest number of retail customers of any U.S. wireless provider.
The company also added 550,000 reseller customers in the third quarter.
The total number of customers at the end of the quarter was 93.2 million.
In addition, the company had 7.9 million other connections at the end of the quarter – such as machine-to-machine and telematics – adding 251,000 net other connections in the quarter. This brings the number of total wireless connections to 101.1 million at the end of the third quarter.
Retail postpaid churn remained low at 1.07 percent. Retail and total customer churn levels were 1.43 percent and 1.36 percent, respectively.
Retail service revenues in the quarter totaled $13.5 billion, up 5.0 percent year over year. Retail data revenues were $4.8 billion, up 22.8 percent. Service revenues in the third quarter were $14.2 billion, up 7.7 percent. Total revenues were $16.3 billion, up 6.0 percent year over year.
Retail service ARPU (average monthly service revenue per user) grew 1.8 percent over third-quarter 2009, to $51.99. Retail data ARPU increased to $18.61, up 19.0 percent year over year.
Wireless operating income margin was 29.9 percent, an increase of 220 basis points year over year. Segment EBITDA margin on service revenues (non-GAAP) was 47.2 percent, up 150 basis points over third-quarter 2009.
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