It was a half-empty or half-full quarterly revenue report for Verizon Tuesday. Just weeks from the Feb. 10 sale of Apple’s iPhone, Verizon fourth quarter profits fell $2.6 percent to $26.4 billion, a hair’s-breath from analyst expectations of $26.48 billion. However, the carrier also reported earlier today adding 872,000 postpaid customers, far exceeding Wall Street expectations of 646,000.
Although consumers could have put off a decision to join Verizon Wireless until the carrier begins selling the iPhone, subscriber growth was described as “spectacular” by one analyst. “The expectation of [Verizon] getting an iPhone appears not to have had an impact,” Stifel Nicolaus’ Christopher King told Reuters.
Verizon’s profit nearly doubled to $4.65 billion, up from $2.37 billion a year ago. Some signs of growth from the private sector were also reported, with a 1.3 percent increase in business and government sales.
Thursday, Verizon Wireless rival AT&T is expected to report is financial standings.
