Earnings: Verizon Revs Up, Boosted By Alltel Acquisition; Wireline Declines

imageVerizon Communications (NYSE: VZ) reported first-quarter financial results today, which were propped up considerably by the acquisition of Alltel (NYSE: AT). The company said operating revenues jumped 11.6 percent to $26.6 billion, compared to the year-ago period. Without the help of Alltel, revenues would have only increased by 3.3 percent. The company earned 58 cents a share, compared to 57 cents in the first quarter 2008. Release. Earnings call. Seeking Alpha transcript.

Wireless results:

— Subscribers: The company said its wireless division, which is co-owned by Vodafone (NYSE: VOD), now has 86.6 million total customers, increasing by 28.8 percent.

— Revenues: Compared to the year ago period, wireless revenues were up nearly 30 percent to $15.1 billion, and data revenues were up 56 percent to $3.6 billion.

— ARPU and Churn: The average monthly service revenue per user decreased .3 percent from the similar period a year ago, to $50.74. Postpaid churn was 1.14 percent.

— Text messages and music downloads: Customers sent or received an average of 1.4 billion text messages each day for a total of more than 127 billion text messages in Q1. Customers also sent nearly 2.1 billion picture/video messages and completed 48.6 million music and video downloads during the quarter.

Wireline results after the jump….

While Verizon’s overall revenues were helped out by the acquisition of Alltel, its wireline operations saw a 3.8 percent decrease in first-quarter operating revenues to $11.6 billion compared with the first quarter 2008.

Other wireline results:

— Broadband Internet: Verizon had 8.9 million total broadband connections in the first quarter, a net increase of 252,000 over the fourth quarter 2008 and 7.8 percent year over year. This includes a decrease of 46,000 DSL-based Verizon High Speed Internet connections, which was more than offset by the increase in FiOS Internet customers.

— FiOS TV: In Q1, Verizon added 299,000 net new FiOS TV customers for a total of 2.2 million, an increase of 83.8 percent compared with Q1 2008. FiOS TV sales penetration (sales as a percentage of potential customers) increased to 22.9 percent, compared with 18.7 percent in the first quarter 2008. FiOS TV service was available for sale to 9.7 million premises by end of the quarter.

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