Wireless patches fixed line shortfall for Verizon

US carrier Verizon Communications reported Monday that its fixed line division lost ground during the second quarter, although the carrier’s wireless business managed to help close the gap.

Net income jumped from $1.68bn in the second quarter of last year, to $1.88bn this year, while operating revenues increased from $23.3bn to $24.1bn over the same period.

The operator’s fixed line subscriber base dropped 8.5 per cent from 41,832 to 38,264, as Verizon’s number of wireless customers jumped 10.7 per cent to 68.681million from just over 62 million a year ago with 1.5 million net customer additions during the period.

Churn dropped to a record low at 1.12 per cent.

Going forward, the company is betting big on its fibre service, FiOS, for which it won 176,000 net new TV customers and 187,000 net new internet customers during the quarter.

Broadband and video revenues from fixed line consumers totalled more than $1bn in the second quarter, representing year on year growth of 52.9 per cent, driving consumer ARPU in legacy Verizon wireline markets up 10.4 per cent to $63.76. The ARPU among FiOS customers was more than $130 per month.