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| VZ > SEC Filings for VZ > Form 10-Q on 29-Oct-2009 | All Recent SEC Filings |
29-Oct-2009
Quarterly Report
Verizon Communications Inc., (Verizon, or the Company) is one of the world's leading providers of communications services. Our Domestic Wireless segment, primarily comprised of Cellco Partnership doing business as Verizon Wireless (Verizon Wireless), provides wireless voice and data products and services across the United States (U.S.) using one of the most extensive and reliable wireless networks. Our Wireline segment provides communications services, including voice, broadband data and video services, network access, long-distance and other communications products and services, and also owns and operates one of the most expansive end-to-end global Internet Protocol (IP) networks. Stressing diversity and commitment to the communities in which we operate, we have a highly diverse workforce of approximately 230,300 employees.
In the sections that follow, we provide information about the important aspects of our operations and investments, both at the consolidated and segment levels, and discuss our results of operations, financial position and sources and uses of cash. In addition, we highlight key trends and uncertainties to the extent practicable. The content and organization of the financial and non-financial data presented in these sections are consistent with information used by our chief operating decision maker for, among other purposes, evaluating performance and allocating resources. We also monitor several key economic indicators as well as the state of the economy in general, primarily in the United States where the majority of our operations are located, in evaluating our operating results and assessing the potential impacts of these trends on our businesses. While most key economic indicators, including gross domestic product, affect our operations to some degree, we historically have noted higher correlations to non-farm employment, personal consumption expenditures and capital spending, as well as more general economic indicators such as inflationary or recessionary trends and housing starts.
Beginning in 2009, we changed the manner in which the Wireline segment reports Operating revenues to align our financial presentation to the continued evolution of the wireline business. Accordingly, there are four marketing units within the Wireline segment: Mass Markets, Global Enterprise, Global Wholesale and Other. Mass Markets includes consumer and small business revenues. Global Enterprise includes all retail revenue from enterprise customers, both domestic and international. Global Wholesale includes all wholesale revenues, both domestic and international, including switched and special access revenues, local wholesale and wholesale services from our global and IP networks. Other primarily includes operator services, payphone services and revenues from the former MCI mass markets customer base. In providing services to former MCI mass market customers, we principally use other carriers' networks.
Our results of operations, financial position and sources and uses of cash in the current and future periods reflect our focus on the following strategic imperatives:
Revenue Growth - To generate revenue growth we are devoting our resources to higher growth markets such as the wireless voice and data markets, the broadband and video markets, and the provision of strategic services to business markets, rather than to the traditional wireline voice market. During the three months ended September 30, 2009, consolidated revenue growth was 10.2% primarily due to the acquisition of Alltel Corporation (Alltel) in January 2009 and higher revenues in growth markets partially offset by lower revenue at Wireline, due to switched access line losses and decreased minutes of use (MOUs) in traditional voice products. We continue developing and marketing innovative product bundles to include local, long-distance, wireless and broadband services for consumer and general business retail customers. We anticipate that these efforts will help counter the effects of competition and technology substitution that have resulted in access line losses.
Market Share Gains - In our wireless business, our goal is to continue to be the market leader in providing wireless voice and data communication services in the U.S. We are focused on providing the highest network reliability and advanced products and services such as Mobile Broadband and our Evolution-Data Optimized (EV-DO) service. We also continue to expand our wireless data offerings, such as messaging and multi-media offerings for both consumer and business customers. With our acquisition of Alltel, we became the largest wireless provider in the U.S. as measured by the total number of customers and revenues. In our wireline business, our goal is to become the leading broadband provider in every market in which we operate. During the three months ended September 30, 2009 as compared to the similar period in 2008:
• Domestic Wireless total customers increased 25.7% to 89.0 million, primarily due to the acquisition of Alltel;
• average revenue per customer per month (ARPU) from service revenues decreased by 2.2% to $51.04, primarily due to the inclusion of customers acquired in connection with the acquisition of Alltel; and
• total data ARPU grew by 17.2% to $15.59.
As of September 30, 2009, we passed 14.5 million premises with our high-capacity fiber optics network operated under the FiOS service mark. During the three months ended September 30, 2009:
• we added 63,000 net wireline broadband connections, including 198,000 net new FiOS Internet subscribers, for a total of 9.2 million connections; and
• we added 191,000 net new FiOS TV subscribers, for a total of 2.7 million FiOS TV subscribers.
With FiOS, we have created the opportunity to increase revenue per customer as well as improve retention and profitability as the traditional fixed-line telephone business continues to decline due to customer migration to wireless, cable and other newer technologies. Consumer ARPU increased 12.6% in the three months ended September 30, 2009, compared to the similar period in 2008.
We are also focused on gaining market share in the enterprise business by the deployment of strategic service offerings - including expansion of our VoIP and international Ethernet capabilities, the introduction of video and web-based conferencing capabilities, and enhancements to our virtual private network portfolio. During the three months ended September 30, 2009, revenues from total strategic services grew 1.0%, compared to the similar period in 2008, as gains in IP and Strategic Data Services were partially offset by declines in Managed Services due to the loss of certain customer contracts.
Profitability Improvement - Our goal is to increase operating income and margins. While our wireless, FiOS and IP services offerings continue to positively impact operating results, economic conditions continue to affect parts of our wireline business. Specifically, business customers continue to be adversely affected by the economy, including delaying decision-making regarding spending on information technology and customer premises equipment. The cumulative effect of unemployment is impacting usage volumes, which is pressuring our margins. In addition, higher costs related to merger integration and acquisition activities and severance, pension and benefit charges also impacted our reported operating results which were lower during the three months ended September 30, 2009, compared to the similar period last year. However, we remain focused on cost controls with the objective of driving efficiencies to offset business volume declines, although we expect these pressures to continue throughout the remainder of 2009. As part of these cost controls, we plan to more significantly reduce the wireline cost structure. Additionally, we continue to make progress toward our goal of reducing employee and contractor headcount by more than 8,000 during the second half of 2009.
Operational Efficiency - While focusing resources on revenue growth and market share gains, we are continually challenging our management team to lower expenses, particularly through technology-assisted productivity improvements, including self-service initiatives. The effect of these and other efforts, such as real estate consolidation, call center routing improvements, a centralized shared services organization, information technology and marketing efforts, has led to changes in our cost structure with a goal of maintaining and improving operating income margins. Through our deployment of the FiOS network, we expect to realize savings annually in our ongoing operating expenses as a result of efficiencies gained from fiber network facilities. As the deployment of the FiOS network gains scale and installation and automation improvements occur, average costs per home connected have begun to decline. In addition, the integration of Alltel's operations will continue and we believe that the use of the same technology platform is facilitating the integration of Alltel's network operations with ours.
We create value for our shareowners by investing the cash flows generated by our business in opportunities and transactions that support our strategic imperatives, thereby increasing customer satisfaction and usage of our products and services. In addition, we use our cash flows to repurchase shares and maintain and grow our dividend payout to shareowners. Verizon's Board of Directors increased the Company's quarterly dividend 3.3% during the third quarter of 2009 and 7.0% during the third quarter of 2008. Net cash provided by operating activities for the nine months ended September 30, 2009 of $23,118 million increased by $3,184 million from $19,934 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2008.
Customer Service - Our goal is to be the leading company in customer service in every market we serve. We view superior product offerings and customer service experiences as competitive differentiators and catalysts to growing revenues and gaining market share. We are committed to providing high-quality customer service and continually monitoring customer satisfaction in all facets of our business.
Performance-Based Culture - We embrace a culture of accountability, based on individual and team objectives that are performance-based and tied to Verizon's strategic imperatives. Key objectives of our compensation programs are pay-for-performance and the alignment of management's and shareowners' long-term interests. We also employ a highly diverse workforce, since respect for diversity is an integral part of Verizon's culture and a critical element of our competitive success.
In this section, we discuss our overall results of operations and highlight items that are not included in our business segment results. We have two reportable segments, which we operate and manage as strategic business units and organize by products and services. Our segments are Domestic Wireless and Wireline.
This section and the following "Segment Results of Operations" section also highlight and describe those items of a non-recurring or non-operational nature separately to ensure consistency of presentation. In the following section, we review the performance of our two reportable segments. We exclude the effects of certain items that management does not consider in assessing segment performance, primarily because of their non-recurring or non-operational nature, as discussed below and in the "Other Consolidated Results" and "Other Items" sections. We believe that this presentation will assist readers in better understanding our results of operations and trends from period to period.
Corporate, eliminations and other includes unallocated corporate expenses, intersegment eliminations recorded in consolidation, the results of other businesses such as our investments in unconsolidated businesses, lease financing, and other adjustments and gains and losses that are not allocated in assessing segment performance due to their non-recurring or non-operational nature. Although such transactions are excluded from the business segment results, they are included in reported consolidated earnings. Gains and losses that are not individually significant are included in all segment results, since these items are included in the chief operating decision maker's assessment of segment performance. On March 31, 2008, we completed the spin-off of our local exchange and related business assets in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont. Reclassifications of prior-period amounts have been made in accordance with the adoption of the accounting standard on noncontrolling interests in the consolidated financial statements and, where appropriate, to reflect comparable operating results for the spinoff of our local exchange and related business assets in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont.
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