Data demand credited for Verizon's Q2 earnings growth

Verizon Communications announced its second quarter earnings rose 12 percent, galvanized by 45.3 percent year-over-year wireless data growth. Verizon said Monday morning it posted revenues of $1.88 billion, or 66 cents per share, in the quarter ended June 30, up from $1.68 billion or 58 cents per share in Q2 2007--its Verizon Wireless unit boasted second quarter revenues of $12.1 billion, up 11.8 percent over the previous year, with service revenues increasing 11.6 percent to $10.5 billion, a surge the company credited to subscriber growth and demand for data services. Verizon Wireless added 1.5 million net customers (virtually all of them postpaid) in Q2, bringing its overall subscriber total to 68.7 million, churn fell year-over-year to 1.12 percent, a record low for the operator. In addition, ARPU grew 0.9 percent year-over-year to $51.53, with total data ARPU increasing 31.3 percent.

According to Verizon Wireless, retail data customers in June totaled 49.6 million--roughly three quarters of its retail subscriber base, and a 25.6 percent increase year-over-year--contributing nearly $2.6 billion to the bottom line. During the quarter, Verizon subscribers sent or received close to 70 billion text messages and 1.4 billion picture/video messages. Customers also completed 36.5 million music and video downloads--in late June, the operator finally launched its long-awaited V Cast Music with Rhapsody [1] monthly subscription service in association with RealNetworks and MTV Networks. Verizon added that more than 60 percent of its customers now own 3G broadband-capable devices.

For more on Verizon's Q2 earnings:
- read this release [2]

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Verizon [4] reaches messaging milestone