Verizon data revenues increase 65% in 2007

Verizon Communications reported its fourth-quarter profits grew 3.9 percent, thanks in part to the addition of 2 million new wireless customers. Verizon's Q4 net income climbed to $1.07 billion from $1.03 billion a year ago--sales rose 5.5 percent to $23.8 billion, which missed the $24 billion average estimated by analysts. Verizon Wireless ended the year with 65.7 million total customers, reporting 6.9 million retail net adds in 2007, the most of any U.S. carrier. Retail ARPU for Q4 was $51.49, while churn was at 1.2 percent.

Mobile data revenues totaled $7.4 billion for the full year, up 65 percent over 2006, Verizon said. Data revenues accounted for 21.3 percent of all service revenues, up from 15.8 percent in the fourth quarter of 2006. Verizon claimed 47.2 million retail data customers in December, representing 74 percent of its retail customer base and a 37 percent increase over the prior year. Verizon subscribers sent or received close to 45 billion text messages and 927 million multimedia messages during Q4, additionally completing approximately 30 million music and video downloads.

For more on Verizon's Q4 earnings:
- read this release [1]

For full FierceMarkets coverage of Verizon's Q4 results and expectations for 2008:
- read this special report [2]

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