Data demand drives Verizon's Q3 revenues

Although Verizon Communications posted a 34 percent overall drop in third-quarter profits following a decline in new Internet subscriptions, the communications giant's wireless unit reported revenue growth of 14.4 percent, buoyed by subscriber growth and demand for data services. Verizon Wireless posted 1.8 million retail net customer additions and revenues totaling $11.3 billion--service revenues were $9.7 billion, with the operator citing retail service ARPU of $52.17 (up 1.9 percent year-over-year) and retail data ARPU of $10.59 (up 42.9 percent). Retail churn fell 1.21 percent, with postpaid churn at 0.96 percent.

According to Verizon, total mobile data revenues were up 63.4 percent over Q3 2006, resulting in $2.0 billion or 20 percent of all service revenues.  The operator boasted 42.0 million retail data customers in September, a 35.6 percent increase over the prior year and a 6.2 percent sequential increase. Verizon Wireless subscribers sent or received 36.5 billion text messages and 721 million photo/video messages during the most recent quarter--they also completed 29.7 million music and video downloads.

For more on Verizon's Q3 earnings:
- read this release

Related articles:
Report: North America now leads on mobile data ARPU
Report: Verizon leads on mobile data revenue
U.S. mobile usage to exceed 100% by 2013
Non-SMS data revenues exceed $10 billion in Q1