News
U.S. operator records 640,000 postpaid net additions in first three months of 2016.
Verizon posted revenues of US$32.17 billion in the first quarter of this year, an increase of just 0.6% on the year-ago period.
The U.S. operator’s Q1 report shows that a 1.4% decline in service revenues to $28.22 billion was offset by 17.2% growth in wireless equipment revenues. Both its wireline and wireless divisions posted declines in operating revenues.
However, in a statement accompanying the results announcement, Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam highlighted a growing contribution from new revenue sources.
"Verizon’s strong first-quarter results demonstrate our capacity to compete effectively, while executing on our plan of continued network leadership and seeding new growth markets in mobile video and the Internet of Things," he said.
In the first quarter, Verizon generated around $195 million in revenues from the IoT space, an increase of 25% year-on-year.
The telco reported net income of $4.43 billion in Q1, an increase of 2.1% on the year-ago quarter. Earnings per share grew by 2.9% to $1.09.
Its mobile retail customer base increased by 3.7% to 112.57 million, the vast majority of which are postpaid customers. Its closely watched postpaid net adds came in at 640,000 during the quarter; Verizon did not specify what proportion of those were smartphone customers. It has a total of 35.72 million postpaid customer accounts, with an average of three connections per account, up from 2.89 a year earlier.
Verizon added 180 million customers – including voice, broadband and video customers – to its FiOS wireline service, significantly fewer than the 282,000 net adds it recorded in the year-ago quarter. Its total FiOS base stands at 17.8 million, up 3.8%, while revenues increased by 5% to $3.52 billion.
