NEW YORK-During a quarter in which Bell Atlantic Corp. announced plans to create the largest U.S. wireless carrier via an agreement with Vodafone AirTouch plc, the company also posted favorable financial results.
“This was a watershed quarter for Bell Atlantic,” said Ivan Seidenberg, Bell Atlantic’s chairman and chief executive officer. “Not only did we meet our financial and operational targets for the quarter, but we also made major strides in transforming our company into one of the world’s leading communications enterprises.”
The company’s third-quarter revenues grew 5 percent to $8.3 billion. Adjusted net income for the quarter increased 10 percent to $1.2 billion, or 76 cents per share. For the first nine months, net income was $3.5 billion, or $2.24 per share, compared with net income of $3.2 billion, or $2.03 per share, for the same period last year.
Bell Atlantic’s combined global wireless business reported total subscribers of 10.6 million at the end of the quarter, including 6.9 million Bell Atlantic Mobile subscribers, 587,000 proportionate PrimeCo Personal Communications subscribers and about 3.1 million proportionate international wireless subscribers.
BAM added 267,000 subscribers during the quarter, compared with 207,000 net additions during the same quarter last year. PrimeCo’s total subscriber base was 1.3 million.
Revenues for the company’s combined global wireless businesses increased 26.3 percent to $1.5 billion, including $1.1 billion in revenues from BAM.
BAM’s total revenue per subscriber increased 2.3 percent to $53. The company said about one-third of its customers subscribe to digital service and account for two-thirds of busy-hour usage on its network.
