Verizon 1Q07 results

Verizon posted good financial results: sales increased 6% to $22.6bn, of which $10bn in wireless (+17%), $4.2bn in landline (-3.5%) and $5.2bn in Business (+2%). Wireline lost some 408k access lines (-8%) to 44.2m lines, but Verizon added 480k broadband subscribers in the quarter. The FiOS is passing now some 5.3m households, increasing penetration to 16%, and got 864k subscribers. Verizon Wireless added 1.7m new subscribers in the quarter and churn rate decreased to 1.1%. Verizon had 60.7m mobile subscribers at the end of March. Another positive information was given on ARPU that grew 2.8% to $50.7. The only negative info is on profit that slipped 8% to $1.5bn in the quarter, on increased costs due to merger with MCI, cost of rolling out FiOS , and a loss in the sale of CANTV (Venezuela).