Verizon has announced its 2008 fourth quarter results. Verizon Wireless' revenue increased 12.3% for the fourth quarter because subscribers increased their spending on text messaging and Internet services by 41% compared with the same period a year earlier.
There official release describes Wireless this way:
- 1.4 million organic (non-acquisition-related) net customer
additions, almost all retail; 1.2 million total net customer additions,
including a net customer loss under a previously announced exchange
agreement related to the 3Q 2008 acquisition of Rural Cellular. - 72.1 million total customers; 70.0 million retail customers,
up 9.9 percent, not including customers added with the Jan. 9, 2009,
acquisition of Alltel. - 12.3 percent increase in total revenues; data revenues up
41.4 percent; ARPU growth for 11th consecutive quarter; strong 47.2
percent EBITDA margin on service revenues (non-GAAP)
Other Verizon Wireless Facts:
- The Alltel acquisition expanded the Verizon Wireless network to
cover nearly the entire U.S. population and made Verizon Wireless the
nation's largest carrier in terms of total customers. - More than 65 percent of the company's retail customers - 45.5
million - had 3G broadband-capable devices by year-end. The company
continued to extend the reach of the nation's largest and most reliable
3G (third generation) network, which now covers more than 274 million
people after the Alltel acquisition. - Customers across the country lined up to purchase the new
BlackBerry Storm, available exclusively in the U.S. from Verizon
Wireless and launched in November. - During the quarter, Verizon Wireless customers sent or
received more than 90 billion text messages - more than double the
number of text messages sent in the same period a year ago. Customers
also sent 1.8 billion picture/video messages and completed 50 million
music and video downloads during the quarter.