Verizon (VZ) had a quarter which indicated that no matter what is wrong with the economy people are still subscribing to cellular service.
Revenue at the phone company rose 5.5% to $23.8 billion. Operating income rose 14.1% to $4.3 billion.
The most important number was from Verizon Wireless, which is 80% owned by Verizon and 20% owned by Vodafone (VOD). The company claims it had the highest net subscriber adds in the industry — 1.5 million net additions taking it to 67.2 million total customers. Who needs that iPhone.
Verizon’s fiber-to-the-home business seems to still be taking a lot of customers from cable. Th firm added 263,000 net new FiOS TV customers and 262,000 net new FiOS internet customers, for a total of 1.2 million FiOS TV customers and 1.8 million FiOS Internet customers.
It may be a bad day for cable shares.
Douglas A. McIntyre