Verizon (VZ) had some strong numbers in the first quarter. Revenue was up 6% to $22.6 billion. With one-time charges taken out, EPS improved from $.46 to $.54.
Wireless operations did especially well. Verizon wireless now has 60.7 million subcribers, up almost 15% year-over-year.
But, how are things going on the big initiative? The $23 billion to put fiber-to-the-home? The great hope for offering bundled TV, voice, and broadband to kick some butt against the cable companies?
Not too well, it turns out. The new FiOS product has 348,000 subscribers. Verizon added 141,000 in the first quarter. Over at Comcast (CMCSA), the cable firm added over 500,000 voice-over-IP customers in the first quarter. Almost all of these migrate from the phone companies. Verizon’s partnership with satellite TV provider DirecTV (DTV) has more customers.
FiOS is supposed to be Verizon’s future. But, right now, it don’t look so good.
Douglas A. McIntyre can be reached at [email protected]. He does not own securities in companies that he writes about.
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