Led by strong growth in its wireless business, Verizon Communications Inc. on Tuesday reported second-quarter earnings of $1.8 billion. The company reported earnings of $338 million in the period a year ago.
Revenue rose 6 percent to $17.8 billion compared to the period a year ago. New York-based Verizon, which owns Verizon Wireless along with Vodafone Group, said wireless revenue rose 25 percent to $6.8 billion.
Verizon Wireless added 1.5 million customers, the largest quarterly increase in the history of the company, and cut churn to 1.45 percent.
Verizon, the biggest local phone company, reported $9.6 billion in domestic telecom operating revenue, a 2.9 percent decrease from the quarter a year ago. The company lost 519,000 residential lines and 155,000 business lines.
Revenue for all long-distance services grew 14.7 percent compared with the second quarter of 2003. The company, which had 16.8 million long-distance lines in service at the end of the quarter, reports that about half of its residential customers have purchased local service in combination with either long distance or DSL, or both. Verizon added 280,000 DSL lines during the quarter, bringing its total to approximately 2.9 million lines.
