Wireless, DSL Drive Verizon Profit
Verizon Communications
The carrier earned $1.8 billion, or 64 cents per share, up from $338 million
for the same period last year (figures for the 2003 quarter were affected by
a $1.6 billion charge). The 64 cent profit was 4 cents more than analysts
had forecasted.
Revenue was $17.8 billion, jumping 6 percent over $16.8 billion last year.
Like BellSouth
Verizon added 280,000 DSL customers during the three months, giving it a
total of 2.9 million lines. In the last year, it has notched more than 1
million new customers for broadband, as customers embrace high-speed
applications or buy the service as part of a bundle.
Wireless was the other star. Verizon Wireless (a joint venture between
Verizon and Vodafone
Domestic telecom revenues were $9.6 billion, about a 3 percent slide from
last year. However, long-distance revenues jumped about 14.7 percent. The
company said it's too early to say if it will pick up customers from AT&T,
which recently announced
it would stop pursuing new long-distance customers
because of a change in regulatory policy.
While broadband and wireless were today's drivers, the company is also
looking to the future. It's earmarking more than half of its annual $5.5
billion capital expense project for new technology initiatives.
Just last week, the company introduced
VoiceWing, its large-scale, consumer Voice over IP
In addition, the company is on track to
make fiber-to-the-premises
Verizon Chairman and CEO Ivan Seidenberg was in Texas today to meet with analysts and
check the progress on the FTTP community in Keller, a Dallas suburb.
"We look at this as a three- to four- to five-year project where we focus on
between 50 [percent] to 70 percent of lines we have in service," Seidenberg
said during a call with financial analysts.
The company plans to begin offering an alternative to cable TV over
FTTP-connected homes next year to better compete with Comcast posted strong second-quarter
financial results, as surging wireless and broadband demand more than offset
traditional phone service losses.
, another Baby Bell that reported
strong second-quarter numbers, Verizon owed much of its success to two key
areas.
) netted 1.5 million new
customers, the largest quarterly customer increase in the company's
four-year history. Total customers grew 16.8 percent year-over-year to 40.4
million.
and others.