Verizon posts first quarter numbers, gets bested by AT&T's
By Chris Ziegler 
posted April 22nd 2010 7:41PM
posted April 22nd 2010 7:41PM
Verizon may have nearly six million more wireless customers in total than its closest rival, AT&T -- 92.8 million to 87.0 million, to be exact -- but that doesn't necessarily mean it's got the healthiest financials, as evidenced by the Q1 '10 numbers posted this week by the two companies. AT&T came through yesterday with $2.5 billion in income that would've actually been $3.1 billion had it not been for a one-time charge related to employee healthcare; Verizon, meanwhile, clocked just $400 million on revenue of $26.9 billion after $962 million in various charges (including one related to -- you guessed it -- healthcare). That compares to $1.6 billion in income in the same quarter last year, but it's still admittedly a good deal rosier than the net operating loss it posted in the last quarter after charges had been applied. For what it's worth, Big Red is quick to accentuate the positive by pointing out its 1.5 million organic net wireless adds and a significant increase in data revenue year over year -- 26.4 percent, in fact, a number for which it probably has the Droid to thank.
Amazing they can't turn a bigger profit considering how much they charge me.
@David Wagner
lol... dont worry, i get charge shit loads on AT&T to.. you should see the tax column.. its ming boggling!.
@David Wagner
Probably because they spend so much on their network, and as of lately, getting some seriously awesome phones. AT&T on the other hand sticks the money into their pockets instead of upgrading their crumbling infrastructure.
@dimithra
I think my phone bill just got bigger thanks to the new health care bill.
@Abe
Welcome to socialism induced hyper inflation. Get used to it, it will affect more than your phone bill! :-)
@DracoDan please don't try to start this Verizon vs AT&T flamewar. its the dumbest debate ever.
@Abe & DracoDan
No one mentioned politics... This is a tech blog.
Shoo, Trolls! *sprays troll be gone*
Find us a report on network investment for both networks and then maybe, just maybe, I'll give half a shit.
@SolidSnake
You go away. This effects every one of us. If you don't think this will get passed to us you are stupid. Not only that, but I had an extra dollar of taxes that started this month. Add 90 or 80 million customers and that is a lot. I guess the other 25 dollars a month isn't enough to buy poor people a blackberry (see michelle obama food bank pictures).
@SolidSnake
I don't remember saying anything political. I'm commenting on how our phone bills will probably get bigger because of the health care bill. What, do you think Verizon and all these other companies are just going to soak it up in their profit margins? Uh, no, I don't think so. Things cost money, no matter what people want to believe.
@DracoDan
AT&T has been pouring 2 billion dollars of its own money into upgrading its network and adding new markets this year alone.
@David Wagner Well with those unnecessary commercials, you never know
@DracoDan
I think you may be on to something considering how bad my experience with AT&T was compared to Verizon's service.
@Evan
Exactly. You can turn some sweet profits when you get the #1 phone and then cash checks and refuse build out your network. Yet people stay w/ ATT.
@Abe
Who cares if your phone bill goes up, if you dont die.
Australia may verge on communism at times,
but telstra and our hospitals both manage to do the job (pick which one of those is NOT NOT NOT NOT free)
@David Wagner
apparently engadget doesnt understand how a company works and that the net profits for a quarter also include heavy expansion in LTE and not just iphone vs droid sales. friggin idiots.
@DracoDan False since other companies are not taking these charges. Also, none of these taxes were introduced recently. Don't believe everything you hear on Fox news. Fox assumed you're a moron.... Which you most likely are!
@Abe Not true. How come other companies are not taking these healthcare charges? You're too much into Fox News.
@Jason B -- "AT&T has been pouring 2 billion dollars of its own money into upgrading its network and adding new markets this year alone."
My roommate once worked for Verizon... and in his training they said that Verizon spends 4 billion dollars on its network infrastructure every quarter.
Every quarter... let that sink in.
And this was like 6 years ago...
@David Wagner - Exactly!
And after all that Droid'ing and those dollar$$$ spent on that brutal and relentless map/network ad campaign aginst at&t. LOLOOOO's! It just goes to show that the buying public was smarter than they thought and knew slow, crap, CDMA/EVDO, Psuedo 3G when they saw it!
@Frankenstein Black CDMA slow? both Sprint and Verizon murdered AT&T when it came to the amount of mobile data transmitted last year
@teh jughead Yet their average speeds were behind AT&T's in PCWorld's wireless benchmarking. Not to mention that HSPA is being deployed to 7.2mbps and 21mbps here in the states....per channel, and there are usually more than channel per site these days...times 3 sectors per channel on a site!
@Michael Scrip Compare apples to apples. Fact vs the word of some college roommate who says that they said... Even if the statement is remotely true then you are probably looking at the network investment across all lines of business not just wireless.
I just think it is funny that VZ only has 55% ownership in Verizon wireless! That is right Vodaphone owns the other 45%. When you share ownership you share the profits.
@jaffreywali
HA! I'm guess you believe the figure that health care is going to save x number of billions of dollars over the next 10 years. The health care benefits are going to be introduced slowly over a 4 year span, with the most expensive ones in year 4. It's easy to come up with the idea that you can save money when you're using 10 years worth of taxes to pay for 6 years of health care.
@David Wagner -Want to analyze your first quarter financials? There's a map for that, and it's not in red.
@teh jughead - Yea, nice try ;^/...
http://www.pcworld.com/article/189592/atandt_roars_back_in_pcworlds_second_3g_wireless_performance_test.html
@David Wagner
I am pretty sure they are lying about it considering they charge their customers for every little thing and not to mention those unknown charges they pile up on us. Profit is calculated after payroll so we can just assume all the money went into exec bonuses. Those greedy bastards!
@Jason B I agree.
@Leefr68 -- "Fact vs the word of some college roommate who says that they said... Even if the statement is remotely true then you are probably looking at the network investment across all lines of business not just wireless."
He was well out of college and was in his mid 20's.
Anyway... what about the other articles that say AT&T would have to spend $5 billion to catch up to Verizon's 3G network?
http://www.infoworld.com/d/mobilize/analyst-att-needs-spend-5-billion-catch-verizons-3g-550
Yay for big companies making billions in profits!
Now I can sleep well tonight.
= )
@The Punisher
yea dude, i was about to sweat, but im happy now that i know the CEO will be able to afford that gold shark tank for his pool.
@The Punisher
Well, I hope that if you make a company you avoid those dirty, dirty, (dare I say it?) profits!
@BrianH
But will he able equip the sharks with lazers?!
Think of the children! Won't somebody please think of the children?!?
@The Punisher
Do you see how many people they employee? I hope they make more and more.
@cobjones
Success is so old fashioned a good citizen would support more progressive policies such as forced redistributive subsidization of failure with the goal of institutionalized mediocrity.
@The Punisher
Too bad they had to spend all that money on healthcare though.
@TimeForTheFairTax
Well you can get downranked for saying something like that on this blog "see me above" you get downranked and yet noone can reply to what you say. Ps I would love an 11 and 11 flat tax
Damn so Android didn't help them that much.
@Kwame Nkrumah
Yeah, Android sucks, MS sucks, Google sucks, HTC sucks, Apple wins at everything ever in the whole universe. Are you happy now? Will you go away?
@Abe
You're an idiot.
@Kwame Nkrumah well they were released in 2009 so they are quite out-dated sooo I wouldn't expect a huge Q1 2010 gain from selling a already known android phone. none the less not terrible
@Kwame Nkrumah
Oh but wait I thought Apple needed Verizon...
more bullshit from the Apple Haters.
Apple doesn't need nor want big red. Apple is fine with AT&T.
And clearly AT&T is destroying the competition.
@TheLondonExchange
LOL, see how they've downranked me.
Seems its Verizon who desperately needs Apple. AT&T is killing them.
@TheLondonExchange
i did not read anywhere on the article that said AT&T is destroying competition. They are merely keeping up. Verizon has 1.9 Billion over them still...
"LOL, see how they've downranked me."
btw, you always get downranked if you havent noticed... and its because your an idiot just more bs from an apple fan
sent from my droid eris, soon to be an incredible.
@HTCAndroidTre
Look at this twat, your Android phones are doing nothing to help Verizon, soon they will be in the red. They desperately need Apple.
The Incredible launch and advertising will probably boost them.
@Alexpeegs
Well, if we're talking about getting boosts from impending device releases.... AT&T might have the upper hand there, too...
But... but... Droid does!
@Peter Church
LOL
Maybe the Droid Incredible will get more profits..than the Droid...only if it gets more popular...