Verizon starts 2012 off strong: sales and profits rise in Q1 earnings

Verizon is starting the year off in a good place with its first quarter earnings.The telecom announced today that it saw revenues increase 4.6 percent to $28.2 billion, up from $26.9 billion, with net income of $3.9 billion, an almost 20 percent jump from last year.

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Verizon says it added 734,000 wireless customers (501,000 on contract) and saw low churn (users who leave) of .96 percent. Wireless revenues were up 7.7 percent at $15.4 billion and data revenues jumped 21.1 percent. Overall, Verizon now has 93 million wireless customers (88 million on contract), and 47 percent of its wireless customers use smartphones.

The company sold 6.3 million smartphones in the first quarter, and 72 percent of contract customers went for smartphones. Notably, Verizon says it sold 2.9 million 4G LTE devices this year. Its LTE network now covers more than two-thirds of the U.S. population in 230 markets.

On the wireline side, Verizon said that FiOS was 63 percent of its consumer revenue. The company now boasts 5 million FiOS Internet subscribers (up 193,000) and 4.4 million FiOS video subscribers. Speaking on Verizon’s earnings call today, Verizon CFO Fran Shammo said that the company would no longer offer DSL and other high-speed Internet in markets with FiOS. (No clue what this means for existing customers.)

Shammo also said on the earnings call that Verizon would be getting out of the calling card and public phone business.

“Verizon delivered double-digit earnings growth and strong cash flow this quarter,”  said Lowell McAdam, Verizon chairman and CEO, in the earnings statement today. “We built momentum coming out of 2011, and our results show that we continue to execute in the key growth  areas of our business. Verizon Wireless produced both great growth and great margins, and we produced another strong quarter of Fios growth. We are confident  we will improve Wireline margins for the full year. Our repositioning of Verizon enterprise solutions has better aligned our strengths in high-growth markets, and we expect our enterprise business to contribute even more to overall Wireline revenue growth and profitability over time.”

Top image via SNL’s Verizon sketch