• July 29, 2008

Verizon Communications reported Monday that mobile data revenue during the second quarter had increased 45.3% compared to a year ago to $2.6 billion. Wireless led growth for Verizon, with sales increasing 12% to $12.1 billion, or about half the company's quarterly revenue of $24.1 billion.

Verizon added 1.5 million net new subscribers for a total of 66.7 million retail wireless customers. Three-quarters of those (49.6 million) are data subscribers, a 25.6% increase over the year-earlier period.

By comparison, AT&T added 1.3 million wireless customers in the second quarter, while increasing mobile data revenue over the last year by 52% to $2.5 billion. AT&T expects to continue strong gains in the second half of the year following this month's launch of the iPhone 3G, for which the carrier is the exclusive wireless partner.

Verizon COO Denny Strigl said during a conference call that the company hadn't felt any significant impact from the release of the new iPhone. The carrier said 40.5 million of its customers, or 60%, now have 3G, broadband-enabled devices.--Mark Walsh