Verizon Earns $338 Million In Second Quarter As Revenue Edges Higher

The profit at nation's biggest telephone company, which amounted to 12 cents per share, compared with a loss of $2.12 billion or 78 cents per share in the second quarter of 2002.

The latest results include a $952 million loss from the sale of stake in Grupo Iusacell, a Mexican cell phone company, by Verizon and wireless partner Vodafone of Britain. It also includes about $600 million in expenses related to debt reduction and labor costs such as severance payments and pension benefits.

Excluding those costs, Verizon posted an operating profit of 69 cents per share, a penny better than Wall Street forecasts.

Second-quarter revenues totaled $16.83 billion, up slightly from $16.75 billion in the year-earlier period. The year-ago figures include about $250 million in revenues from operations that Verizon has since sold.

The company said its results reflect growth from the net addition of 1.3 million Verizon Wireless customers and 1.4 million long-distance lines.

Verizon Wireless' revenues grew 14.3 percent to $5.5 billion. Long-distance revenues totaled $901 million, up 17.2 percent. However, overall revenues from non-wireless phone service, including the company's core local business, declined 3.4 percent to $9.9 billion.