US operator Verizon reported first-quarter earnings up 15.3 percent from a year earlier to USD 0.68 per share, led by continued growth at its mobile and fibre broadband activities. Revenues rose 4.2 percent to USD 29.4 billion, EBITDA improved 12.1 percent to USD 10.3 billion, and operating profit was up 19.8 percent to USD 6.2 billion. The adjusted EBITDA margin was up 240 basis points from a year earlier to 35.1 percent. Operating cash flow increased 26.4 percent to USD 1.6 billion, while capital expenditures were flat year-on-year at USD 3.6 billion. Verizon said it expects earnings and free cash flow to continue to grow in the course of this year.
At Verizon Wireless, revenues were up 6.8 percent to USD 19.5 billion. Service revenues rose 8.6 percent to USD 16.7 billion, and the EBITDA margin on service revenue improved to a record 50.4 percent. The retail customer base rose by 720,000 over the three months, including 677,000 new postpaid users, for a total base of 98.9 million at the end of March, up 6.4 percent from a year earlier. Verizon said it expects postpaid net adds to improve sequentially over the year.
Verizon moved to reporting average revenue per account (ARPA), rather than user (ARPU), as more customers share their subscriptions across multiple devices. Of Verizon's 34.9 million retail postpaid accounts at the end of the period, each averaged 2.7 connections, up 5.1 percent from a year ago, and revenue of USD 150.27 per month, up 6.9 percent.
Over 61 percent of postpaid connections were smartphones, versus 58 percent at end-2012, and 81.5 percent of handset sales in the quarter were smartphones. The LTE network was available to 95 percent of the operator's 3G footprint, or 287 million people as of 18 April.
At the Wireline division, revenues fell 1.2 percent to USD 9.83 billion. Consumer revenues rose 4.3 percent to USD 3.6 billion, while enterprise sales fell 2.6 percent to USD 3.8 billion, and wholesale revenues were down 7.2 percent to USD 1.7 billion. The adjusted EBITDA margin dipped to 21.4 percent from 22.6 a year ago.
Growth in the consumer segment was led by the Fios fibre services. Fios internet subscribers were up by 188,000 in the three months to 5.6 million, and video subscribers rose by 169,000 to 4.9 million. This offset a loss of 89,000 DSL customers. Consumer ARPU improved 9.5 percent annually to USD 107.15.
