Verizon's results.
biz.yahoo.com
Wireless Delivers Another Strong Performance
In the fourth quarter 2008, Verizon Wireless continued to deliver service ARPU growth, strong customer loyalty, and sustained high margins:
* Organic growth totaled 1.4 million net customer additions, essentially all of which were retail.
* Retail net customer additions totaled 1.2 million. This included a net loss of 122,000 retail customers, resulting primarily from the closing of a previously announced exchange agreement with another carrier. Verizon Wireless had entered into this agreement to comply with conditions imposed in connection with regulatory approval of the company's acquisition of Rural Cellular Corporation, which closed in August 2008.
* Verizon Wireless added 5.8 million organic net new retail customers in 2008 -- expected to be the most of any U.S. wireless carrier.
* At the end of the quarter, Verizon Wireless had 72.1 million total customers.
* Verizon Wireless continued to have a high-quality customer base, with 70.0 million retail customers (not including Alltel) -- the most of any U.S. wireless brand. Following the recently completed Alltel acquisition, Verizon Wireless now serves more than 80 million customers, excluding markets to be divested.
* Verizon Wireless continued to have low churn -- 1.35 percent churn among all customers, and 1.05 percent among the company's retail post-paid customers.
* Verizon Wireless continued its double-digit revenue growth, with total quarterly revenues of $12.8 billion, up 12.3 percent year over year. Full-year revenues were $49.3 billion, up 12.4 percent. Service revenues in the fourth quarter were $11.1 billion, up 12.0 percent year over year, and $42.6 billion for the full year, up 12.2 percent.
* This revenue growth was driven by accretion in ARPU (average monthly revenue per customer), which increased year over year for the 11th consecutive quarter. Total service ARPU of $51.72 was up 1.4 percent year over year, reflecting strong growth in total data ARPU, which was up 27.9 percent over the same period.
* Wireless operating income margin reached 29.7 percent, up 350 basis points on a year- over-year basis. EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) margin on service revenues reached 47.2 percent.
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Additional Highlights
Wireless
* The Alltel acquisition expanded the Verizon Wireless network to cover nearly the entire U.S. population and made Verizon Wireless the nation's largest carrier in terms of total customers -- in addition to its traditional position of being the leading carrier in terms of retail customers, revenues and margins.
* At the end of 2008, retail customers (postpaid and prepaid) represented 97 percent of the company's base.
* Verizon Wireless continued to lead the industry in cost efficiency. Monthly cash expense per customer (non-GAAP) decreased in the fourth quarter and for the full year to $27.29 and $28.12 in 2008 from $28.75 and $28.24 in 2007, respectively.
* Data revenues of $10.7 billion for the full year were up 44 percent over 2007. In the fourth quarter, data revenues were 26.8 percent of all service revenues, up from 21.3 percent in the fourth quarter 2007. Verizon Wireless had 55.1 million retail data customers at year-end -- 79 percent of the retail customer base and a 16.8 percent increase over year-end 2007.
* More than 65 percent of the company's retail customers -- 45.5 million -- had 3G broadband-capable devices by year-end. The company continued to extend the reach of the nation's largest and most reliable 3G (third generation) network, which now covers more than 274 million people after the Alltel acquisition.
* Customers across the country lined up to purchase the new BlackBerry Storm, available exclusively in the U.S. from Verizon Wireless and launched in November. Designed for both consumers and business customers, the BlackBerry Storm offers customers the reliability of the Verizon Wireless 3G network and the full power of a revolutionary touch-screen, multimedia smartphone with global connectivity.
* Verizon Wireless, with the most global data coverage of any U.S. wireless carrier, received top honors during the quarter for its global services and international solutions that help travelers stay connected around the globe. Readers of Global Traveler magazine selected Verizon Wireless as the world's best wireless service provider for the second consecutive year. Business Traveler magazine readers chose Verizon Wireless as the world's best wireless data service provider in the 2008 "Best in Business Travel" awards.
* During the quarter, Verizon Wireless customers sent or received more than 90 billion text messages -- more than double the number of text messages sent in the same period a year ago. Customers also sent 1.8 billion picture/video messages and completed 50 million music and video downloads during the quarter. |
