Verizon Wireless adds 1.6M net customers

Although it didn't top rival AT&T, Verizon Wireless reported strong growth with 1.6 million net new subscribers in third quarter 2007 bringing its total subscriber base to 63.7 million. AT&T, which reported its earnings last week, had a record-breaking quarter with 2 million net new customers and a total of 65.7 million customers.

Verizon CEO Denny Strigl, said the firm felt little impact from AT&T's third-quarter launch of the much-anticipated iPhone. "We did see last quarter an initial adjustment in our local number portability rates but after two to three weeks it went back to normal," Strigl said. "As you can see from our churn number, it's not appreciably different. Relative to the iPhone we don't see a major impact on our business."

He added that the company believes its new Voyager handset will be a formidable competitor to the iPhone. 

Here's a breakdown of Verizon Wireless' key metrics for the quarter:   

Revenue: Revenues totaled $11.3 billion, up 14.4 percent. Service revenues were $9.7 billion, up from $9.4 billion in second quarter.  Data revenue was $2 billion, up from $1.8 billion in second quarter.

Churn: Churn was 1.21 percent, up from 1.08 percent in second quarter.

ARPU: Retail service ARPU was $52.17, up from $51.84 in second quarter. Data ARPU was $10.59 in third quarter, up from $9.84 in second quarter. Here's a look at how Verizon Wireless' ARPU compares to previous quarters (click here for the tables on net subscribers and subscriber churn):

See this press release for more details. 

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