Verizon adds wireless customers, hits Q2 targets

Verizon added 614,000 postpaid wireless customers as it met its quarterly second earnings targets.

The second quarter highlighted the impact of adding unlimited data plans to Verizon. Verizon added unlimited data plans amid a T-Mobile surge in customer additions. Verizon’s customer additions were less than both AT&T and T-Mobile.

Verizon reported second quarter earnings of $1.07 a share and 96 cents a share excluding gains from the sale of data center assets and charges due to the purchase of Yahoo. Revenue for the second quarter was $30.5 billion, down 2 percent from a year ago when adjusted for acquisitions and divestitures.

AT&T beats Q2 earnings expectations | T-Mobile adds 1.3 million customers in Q2, continues to grab wireless share

According to Verizon, Yahoo’s operating business became part of the company June 13. Yahoo will be rolled into Oath, a unit that also includes AOL.

Add it up and Verizon appeared to rebound from its first quarter shock. The customer growth also came with a retail postpaid churn of 0.94 percent.

By the numbers:

• Wireless revenue was $21.3 billion in the second quarter, down 1.9 percent from a year ago.
• Unsubsidized pricing is about 75 percent of the post-paid base.
• Telematics revenue was $220 million in the second quarter.
• Wireline revenue was $7.8 billion, up 1.2 percent from a year ago. FioS revenue was up 4.4 percent in the second quarter to $2.9 billion. Verizon added 49,000 FiOS Internet connections and lost 15,000 net video connections.
• As for the outlook, Verizon said its 2017 revenue will be on par with 2016 with capital spending to be between $16.8 billion to $17.5 billion.