Verizon, the largest wireless carrier in U.S. posted strong Q3 results, recording overall operating revenues of $31.6 billion, a quaterly increase by 4.3% with impressive wireless postpaid churn standing at 1.00%. In the Q3, Verizon has added 1.52 million net postpaid connections, including 1.1 million tablet connections to a total of 35.4 million postpaid accounts. This is a 1.3 percent increase compared to the same quater a year before. Retail postpaid ARPA (average revenue per account) increased 3.5 percent over third-quarter 2013, to $161.24 per month.
Smartphones accounted for 77 percent of the Verizon Wireless retail postpaid customer phone base, up from 75 percent at the end of second-quarter 2014. At the same time, each account has on average 2.82 connections.
Verizon also recorded new revenue streams from machine-to-machine (M2M) and telematics, totaling to $150 million in third-quarter 2014 – or more than $400 million through the first nine months of 2014, an increase of more than 40 percent year to date.
Chairman and CEO Lowell McAdam
We have great confidence heading into the fourth quarter, as Verizon continues to deliver consistently strong operating and financial results. We see continued, healthy customer demand for wireless and broadband services, and we are encouraged by the growth we are starting to see in the areas of video delivery and machine-to-machine. Our cash generation remains strong, and last month we were pleased to announce board approval of a quarterly dividend increase for the eighth consecutive year.
