Verizon's Successful Wireline Business

The unions that have staged strikes against Verizon (NYSE: VZ) believe that the company does well enough in its ancient wireline business that they should remain well compensated. Verizon usually highlights its wireless operations as the reason Wall St. should consider its shares. But wireline is an impressive contributor to both revenue and profit.

Verizon’s latest quarterly filing shows that wireline revenue was flat in the second quarter at $10.2 billion. Operating income rose from $207 million in the quarter last year to $318 million. Verizon’s consumer retail business — the home phone — had steady sales of $3.4 billion. Cellphone and VoIP service are not destroying this base as quickly as many believe.

Verizon can reasonably make the case that over time more of its residential customers will turn to alternative means for the “talk” service in their homes. There are, however, as many reasons for people to keep the service as to discard it. Cellular connections often do not work indoors. VoIP phone service drops when the electric power to a home is cut. Many people have phone numbers that are decades old and remembered by large numbers of people.

Verizon and its rivals will continue to argue that residential wireline service has seen its best days. The jury is out on that. Strikers walking the picket lines outside Verizon offices have a case to make that Verizon should compensate them for helping to operate a successful business — because they do.

Douglas A. McIntyre