T-Mobile may be ratcheting up the competitive pressure but that hasn’t stopped Verizon from growing their customer base. It was revealed during their most recent earnings report that Verizon added 1.1 million net retail connections during the third quarter – 927,000 of which signed long-term contracts with the company. In total, Verizon ended the quarter with 101.2 million connections.
Breaking it down further, Verizon activated 7.6 million smartphones during the quarter and 10.2 million total devices. CFO Fran Shammo noted that 51 percent – or 3.9 million units – activated during the period were iPhones. That’s up from 3.1 million iPhones activated in the year-ago period but flat from the second quarter.
Growth is growth and while the figures likely compare well against the competition, it’s a 39.6 percent decline from a year ago. Even still, Shammo said he expected Verizon’s customer growth to outpace all of its rivals for the quarter.
Net income for Verizon (excluding the stake in Verizon Wireless owned by Vodafone) was $2.23 billion which translates to $0.78 per share. Last year during the same period, Verizon accounted for $1.59 billion, or $0.56 per share.
Competition in the wireless industry is at an unprecedented level as T-Mobile’s new Uncarrier strategy has forced all of the major players to improvise with regard to smartphone upgrade plans. Meanwhile, Sprint is now poised to become a more serious competitor through a wealth of resources they gained from the SoftBank takeover.
