Data growth surges as Verizon profit climbs 9.8%

Verizon Communications posted a 9.8 percent rise in first quarter net income galvanized by its wireless business, with total data growth up 48.9 percent over the previous year. Verizon posted net income of $1.64 billion, up from $1.5 billion in Q1 2007; revenue rose 5.5 percent to $23.83 billion. Verizon Wireless added 1.5 million net customers--1.3 million of them postpaid--to grow to 67.2 million total subscribers. ARPU increased year-over-year for the eighth consecutive quarter: Retail service ARPU grew 1.3 percent over last year to $51.40, while retail data ARPU was $11.94, up 33.4 percent year-over-year. Wireless operating income margin was 27.9 percent, the provider's highest percentage ever.

Verizon Wireless boasted 48.1 million retail data customers in March, representing close to 74 percent of its retail customer base and a 33.8 percent increase over the prior year. More than 58 percent of Verizon retail customers now have broadband-capable devices. Over the course of Q1, Verizon Wireless customers sent or received more than 58 billion text messages and 1.1 billion photo/video messages. Subscribers also completed 34.6 million music and video downloads.

For more on Verizon's Q1 report:
- read this release [1]

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Data revenue growth fuels AT&T [2]'s Q1
Verizon [3] data revenues increase 65% in 2007