Verizon's (NYSE: VZ) Q4 revenue slips slightly while broadband, business revenue grow

Verizon's (NYSE: VZ) Q4 earnings may have missed Wall Street's expectations, but in the wireline segment it did report a rise in both broadband and business revenues.   

For the quarter, Verizon's profit was $4.65 billion, or 93 cents per share, up from $2.37 billion, or 22 cents per share, in Q4 2009. However, revenue was down 2.6 percent from Q4 09, a result it attributes to its sale of its rural lines to Frontier.

These results slightly missed Wall Street analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S of $26.48 billion.

Here's a breakdown of the other key metrics:

  • Wireline revenues: Verizon's wireline operating revenue was $10.3 billion, down 2.8 percent from Q4 09, while cash operating expenses (non-GAAP) also declined 3.9 percent to $7.9 billion. Consumer ARPU for wireline services was $88.85 in fourth-quarter 2010, up 10.7 percent compared with fourth-quarter 2009.
  • Broadband growth: Total wireline broadband and video revenues--including FiOS Internet, FiOS TV and HSI (DSL-based high-speed Internet)--were $1.8 billion in the quarter, up 18.4 percent from 4Q 2009. During the fourth quarter Verizon added 197,000 net FiOS Internet and 182,000 net FiOS TV customer additions, 4.1 million total FiOS Internet customers and 3.5 million total FiOS TV customers. As of the end of 2010, Verizon had 4.1 million FiOS Internet and 3.5 million FiOS TV customers. Overall broadband subscriber connections totaled 8.4 million at the end of the fourth quarter 2010, a 2.8 percent year-over-year increase.
  • Business Services: Buoyed by a number of key multinational corporations (MNC) wins including Carlsberg and National grid, Verizon's global enterprise revenues rose 1.3 percent to $4.0 billion. During the fourth quarter, the sale of new strategic enterprise services such as security and IT solutions, as well as strategic networking were up 7.5 percent over Q4 09. Going forward, Verizon plans to continue to honing its cloud services strategy, in addition to developing platforms to deliver enterprise mobility applications and new unified communications professional services to MNCs. Outside of business services, Verizon is also upping its wholesale operations to address wireless backhaul needs with 22 nodes in its Switched Ethernet Service network to support an unnamed fiber-to-the-cell-site initiative in the U.S.

With a drive this year to increase their focus on cloud and fiber-based services, Ivan Seidenberg, CEO and Chairman of Verizon said that he sees opportunity to increase the profitability of the wireline business.

"Following another solid quarter in our wireline businesses, we are optimistic about opportunities to continue to expand wireline margins," he said in the earnings release.

For more:
- see the earnings release
- Reuters has this article
- here's FierceIPTV's take

Related articles:
Verizon's Q3 profit drops while FiOS subscribership grows
Sizing up the wireline industry in the third quarter 2010