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Verizon Wireless, offering a taste of what’s to come during its July 27 financial quarterly results call, announced on July 24 that its customer base grew by 1.1 million in the second quarter of 2009, for a total of 87.7 million customers.
In a statement on the pending performance announcement, the carrier added that it had “the most reliable cost-to-coast wireless voice and data network” as well as “the highest loyalty level in the industry, as measured by the rate of customer churn.”
Competitor AT&T reported its second-quarter 2009 earnings July 23, which included the activation of 2.4 million iPhones and consolidated revenue of $30.7 billion.
“Our network handles more integrated devices and more data traffic than any of our competitors,” AT&T Chief Financial Officer Rick Lindner stated during the call.
AT&T’s exclusive hold on the iPhone in the United States has been the carrier’s major source of recent success. Verizon Wireless, however, has been said to be in talks with Apple about carrying a CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) version of the iPhone once AT&T’s exclusivity contract expires, likely in 2010.
Perhaps with this motivation, Verizon sent a letter to the House of Representatives stating that it would cap its exclusivity contracts at six months, after which time it would allow the devices to be offered by small carriers.
Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam defined “small” as “those with 500,000 customers or less.”
The gesture has been criticized, however, with MAP (Media Access Project), for example, calling it “largely insubstantial” in a July 20 statement that continued: “Industry self-regulation cannot be a substitute for meaningful consumer protection laws, particularly in a market that demonstrates insufficient competition.”
On April 27, Verizon reported first-quarter total operating revenues of $26.6 billion, as well as successes in its wire-line and wireless markets. Customers totaled 86.6 million at the end of the first quarter, which was up 28.8 percent year over year.
Competitor Sprint will announce its most recent earnings on July 29.