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Verizon adds 1.5m new wireless customers in Q4 2011; 44 percent of subscribers use smartphones

Verizon adds 1.5m new wireless customers in Q4 2011; 44 percent of subscribers use smartphones

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Verizon today announced its Q4 2011 results: the company added 1.5 million new wireless customers, the biggest amount added in a single quarter in the last three years, for a grand total of 108.7 million total subscribers, up six percent over last year.

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Verizon Wireless Store
Verizon Wireless Store

Verizon's reporting its Q4 2011 results today, and the telecommunications giant had a lot of good news to announce. For starters, the company added 1.5 million new wireless customers, the biggest amount added in a single quarter in the last three years, for a grand total of 108.7 million total subscribers (including 92.2 million retail customers), up six percent over last year. Not surprisingly, smartphones played a big role in this growth — 44 percent of all subscribers are using a smartphone now, up from 39 percent just one quarter ago. Correspondingly, Verizon's wireless revenue increased 13 percent year-over-year to $18.3 billion, with data revenue increasing 19 percent to $6.3 billion.

The wireline end of the business was fairly successful as well: Verizon added 201,000 new FiOS internet customers and 194,000 new FiOS video connections in Q4, but fourth-quarter revenue of $10.1 billion represented a 1.5 percent decline year-over-year. Despite the strong performance, Verizon reported a loss of 71 cents per share, compared to earnings of 93 cents per share in Q4 2010 — but this was due largely to pension charges, not any major weakness in the company's products. Despite the loss, Verizon's looking for its investments in FiOS and LTE to pay off in 2012: CEO Lowell McAdam said in a statement that: "Verizon has set the stage for accelerated growth across our business units, and we look to continue to build significant value for shareholders in 2012."