Alltel’s net is up, but company misses by a penny

Alltel reported earnings for the second quarter that fell just short of consensus analyst estimates.

For the quarter ending June 30, the company posted revenue of $1.9 billion, flat with the same quarter one year ago. Net income was up 11% to $247 million, or 79 cents per share, but was just short of the 80 cents predicted on First Call. Much of the income growth, however, came as a result of a mandatory accounting change. Without that change, growth was only 1%.

Wireless revenue for the quarter was slightly more than $1 billion, up from $965 million from one year ago. The company posted net wireless adds of 80,000 and lowered its churn 12 basis points to 2.19%. Wireline revenue was $497 million, up from $488 million.

In the third quarter, Alltel expects to close on its purchases of access lines from Verizon and CenturyTel’s wireless unit. As a result, the company expects wireline service revenue to jump to between $565 million and $575 million. Wireless revenue is expected to increase to between $1.025 billion and $1.045 billion.

--Toby Weber, Staff Writer