Verizon Wireless adds 1.5 mil subs. Could it be the flat rate effect?

Unlike the van to the left, V’s wireless unit hasn’t flamed out yet. To the contrary it grew quite a bit according to the company’s internally generated data. We think they picked up / retained a good many customers with the flat rate plan that they were the first to roll out. But, it’s hard to imagine 1.5 million new customers signing up to pay $100/month. Since the market has peaked, you have to assume most of the V newbies came from Sprint. Better get that Wimax working soon Sprinters, while you still have a company to bet on it!

The company reported that first quarter net adds were 1.5 million, bringing its total subscriber base to 67.2 million. That’s down from 2 million net adds in fourth quarter 2007. Revenues totaled $11.7 billion, up 13.2 percent year over year. Here’s a breakdown of the other key metrics:

ARPU: Retail ARPU was $51.40, up 1.3 percent year over year. However, this is slightly down from fourth quarter 2007 when the operator had an ARPU of $51.49.

Data: Data ARPU was $11.94, up from $11.06 in fourth quarter 2007. Data now represents 23 percent of total service revenue up from 17.5 percent a year ago. Data revenues were $2.3 billion. The company had 48.1 million retain data customers in March, accounting for 74 percent of the retail customer base.

Churn: Total churn is 1.19 percent, down from 1.2 percent total churn in fourth quarter 2007. Retail post-paid churn is 0.93 percent, down from 0.94 percent in fourth quarter. (Fierce Wireless)