Verizon Communications reported gains in both revenue and net income for the third quarter of 2011, driven largely by growth in the company’s mobile business.
Verizon on Friday reported revenue of US$27.9 billion for the third quarter, up 5.4 percent from the third quarter of 2010. Net income was $3.5 billion, up from $2.7 billion a year earlier. Adjusted earnings per share were $0.56, beating analyst expectations of $0.55.
Revenue for Verizon Wireless was $17.7 billion for the quarter, up from $16.3 billion, or by 9.1 percent, in the third quarter of 2010. Mobile data revenue was $6.1 billion, up 20.5 percent from the year earlier.
Verizon Wireless added 1.3 million connections during the quarter, bringing the company’s total number of mobile customers to 107.7 million.
On the wireline side, Verizon reported revenue of $10.1 billion, a decline of 1.3 percent. Rain storms in the eastern U.S. during the quarter led to significant network repair requests and a two-week strike caused delays in some broadband and enterprise deployments, Verizon officials said. The cost of the storms and the strike totalled $250 million, Verizon said.
Verizon added 138,000 FiOS fiber-based broadband connections during the quarter, along with 131,000 FiOS TV customers. The company expects to add 200,000 FiOS broadband and another 200,000 FiOS TV customers during the fourth quarter, as the company clears a backlog caused by the storms and the strike, it said.
The company had 20,000 net additions of broadband customers during the quarter, with DSL losses offsetting most FiOS gains. The company now has 8.6 million broadband customers, up 2.8 percent from a year ago.
Through three quarters of 2011, Verizon has reported net income of $10.4 billion, compared to $10.2 billion for the entire year of 2010.
Grant Gross covers technology and telecom policy in the U.S. government for The IDG News Service. Follow Grant on Twitter at GrantGross. Grant’s e-mail address is grant_gross@idg.com.