Verizon Wireless data revenues double in Q2

Despite revenue and subscriber increases, Verizon Communications reported that second quarter profits declined 7.2 percent, citing pension settlements tied to workforce reductions and merger integration costs related to its Alltel acquisition. Verizon posted income of $1.48 billion, or 52 cents a share, down from $1.88 billion/66 cents a share a year earlier, and revenue increased 11 percent to $26.86 billion. Analysts forecast earnings of 63 cents a share on revenue of $26.85 billion, according to a Thompson Reuters poll. Verizon Wireless posted year-over-year revenue growth of 27.7 percent to $15.5 billion, with subscriber totals growing 1.1 million in the quarter to 87.7 million. Postpaid churn dropped to 1.01 percent.

Verizon Wireless touted 27.2 percent year-over-year service revenue increases to $13.3 billion, crediting continued demand for data services--second quarter data revenue grew to $3.9 billion, up 52.6 percent, although service ARPU slipped 0.8 percent year over year to $51.10. Total data ARPU was $14.96, up 18.9 percent year over year and up 22.8 percent on a pro forma basis. Data revenues now represent 29.3 percent of all VZW service revenues, up from 24.0 percent in the second quarter 2008. Verizon subscribers sent or received close to 146 billion text messages in Q2, and sent more than 2.5 billion picture/video messages--in addition, consumers completed 40 million music and video downloads during the quarter.

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

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