Verizon Wireless, up against stiff competition from T-Mobile US and an increasingly price-aggressive Sprint, saw Q1 service revenue dip by 0.4 per cent, year on year, to $17.9 billion.

Equipment revenue, however, grew by $1.5 billion over the same period as more customers chose its ‘Edge’ installment plan for new devices.

Total revenues at Verizon Communications’ wireless unit reached $22.3 billion during Q1 2015, up 6.9 per cent year on year.

Despite increased competition, churn in the postpaid smartphone segment was nonetheless down a fraction, to 1.03 per cent (Q1 2014: 1.07 per cent).

Verizon Wireless had 565,000 retail postpaid net additions in first-quarter 2015, a 4.8 percent increase compared with Q1 2014, taking the total number of postpaid accounts up to 102.6 million.

As of 31 March 2015, Verizon Wireless had 108.6 million retail connections, a 5.1 per cent increase from 12 months previously.

During the first three months of 2015, the operator added 621,000 4G smartphones, but due to a net decline in 3G smartphones, overall smartphone growth was 247,000.

The company added 820,000 4G tablets, but reported net declines of 385,000 basic phones and 188,000 prepaid devices in Q1 2015.

4G devices now account for around 70 per cent of the retail postpaid connections base, up from 49 percent a year ago, with the 4G network handling about 86 percent of total wireless data traffic in the quarter.

Wireless operating income margin was 35.0 percent, flat with last year’s first quarter.
At a group level, which includes Verizon Communications’ fixed-line business, revenues were up 3.8 per cent, to $32 billion.

Net income attributable to Verizon increased by 6.9 per cent, to $4.2 billion.