Verizon (VZ) is doing just fine, recession or no. Its earning moved up 31% in Q3. Whether it can keep that up is a matter of opinion but at least the phone company can make a good case.
Verizon’s strength was wireless, which should not surprise people. The average citizen is getting rid of his phone and use VoIP or his cell. The firm hit 70.8 million total customers up 11.3 percent.
Verizon’s cable TV killer also did well. It added 233,000 net new FiOS TV customers and 225,000 net new FiOS Internet customers.The company has 1.6 million FiOS TV customers. It still has not wired its whole service area which is about 18 million homes, so that number should get better. FiOS TV sales penetration increased to 19.7 percent, compared with 15.2 percent in last year’s third quarter
Verizon’s oldest business, dating back to Alexander Graham Bell did poorly. Wireline total operating revenues were $12.2 billion, a 1.7 percent decrease compared with the third quarter 2007.
Revenue for the entire beast of a company was up 4% to $24.6 billion.
Next year may not be so good.
Douglas A. McIntyre
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