Verizon Wireless continued its domination of the wireless industry during the first three months of the year, adding 1.4 million net customer additions and increasing its total customer base to an industry-leading 38.9 million subscribers. The carrier noted the strong growth, which included 1.2 million retail net additions, was a 66.5-percent increase compared with the 833,000 subscribers the carrier added during the first quarter of 2003 and was helped by a drop in customer churn from 2.1 percent last year to 1.6 percent this year.
Average monthly service revenue per customer increased 1.8 percent year over year to $48 with data services contributing more than 3.6 percent to total service revenues compared with 1.5 percent during the first quarter of 2003. Verizon Wireless added that customers sent 2.1 billion text messages, downloaded 19 million Get It Now applications and sent 21 million picture messages during the first quarter.
Total service revenues increased more than 21 percent from $5.1 billion during the first quarter of 2003 to $6.2 billion this year, while segment income increased nearly 46 percent from $218 million in 2003 to $318 million this year.
