Verizon Announces Earnings, 2.2 Million iPhone Activations

[Michael Essany]

The iPhone has been good to Verizon, the largest mobile operator in the US - at least until AT&T is allowed to purchase T-Mobile. On Thursday, the mobile giant "beat the street" by announcing that it more than tripled net income in the first quarter.

Verizon said that Q1 profits were $1.44 billion (51 cents a share) compared to $443 million (16 cents a share) in Q1 2010. As expected, a certain Apple product helped drive that record profit. Verizon activated some 2.2 million iPhones, even though the iPhone 4 was available for less than one-third of the quarter for which earnings were reported.

On a consolidated basis, Verizon's total operating revenues were $27.0 billion in first-quarter 2011, an increase of 0.3 percent compared with first-quarter 2010, the company said.

Verizon, however, totally eviscerated AT&T in another category of new subscribers. Verizon Wireless picked 906,000 new subscribers. AT&T, on the other hand, picked up 62,000. Verizon now enjoys better than 104 million total connections.

"In the first quarter, Verizon Wireless solidified its industry leadership with results that once again showed sustainable, profitable growth," said Verizon Chairman and CEO Ivan Seidenberg. "We are executing on our business plans and building momentum, and we are on track to meet both our revenue and earnings objectives for the year."

Source: Verizon

[Paco]

no surprise IMO

[Stray]

+1

[delusion950]

Wow not bad

[iliveudie]

So who made more?

[coolguy742]

So who made more?

AT&T, this was covered in an earlier story

[iliveudie]

AT&T, this was covered in an earlier story

I read the AT&T post. MMi never reported AT&Ts earning. Just that they activated 3.6m iPhones and have 97.5m subscribers. No amount though.

[steve-z17]

Apple helping out Verizon

[sziklassy]

If Verizon allows any overseas sim card to be used, then this is technically a better deal that ATT's as ATT's units would still need to be unlocked. Anyone know how Verizon's current world phones work (will they allow for use of any overseas sim card)?

[piston597]

AT&T made more... but this goes to show Verizon got this far ONLY because of the iPhone... What all the Androids did was nothing compared to the iPhone.. shows the amount of influence it has... Not a fanboy here... just pointing out the obvious