Verizon 1Q06 results

Verizon reported a profit of $1.6bn, down 12%, on revenues of $22.7bn, up 3% proforma and +25% as reported. Verizon Wireless accounted for $8.8bn in sales (up 19%), and added 1.7m mobile subscribers in the quarter to a total of 53m. Verizon Wireless is second to Cingular (with 56m users). The wireline segment reported sales of $12.5bn, up 33% due to the addition of MCI business. Verizon said its FiOS deployment is ahead of schedule with 3.6 m households passed. Where available, FiOS adoption run at a penetration rate of 17%, and adoption rate are promising. Connection costs, however, were running higher than the target of $717 per home, so it reduced earnings by 6 cents a share (about 10%) excluding capital expenditures.