Verizon Wireless claims most retail customers

Verizon Wireless today said it added 1.8 million net customers in the second quarter bring its total subscriber base to 54.8 million users. While Verizon Wireless still trails Cingular Wireless’ 57.3 million-strong base, the carrier now claims to have the largest number of direct retail customers in the country.

While Cingular added 1.5 million subscribers in the second quarter, 380,000 were wholesale customers, served by another carrier leasing access to the Cingular network. Meanwhile Verizon claims that all 1.8 million added in the quarter were retail customers, being billed directly by Verizon Wireless. In fact, its wholesale customer number, 2.2 million, represents only 4% of its total subscribers.

In the last year, many of the major carriers have found their subscriber numbers inflated by their growing wholesales businesses as MVNOs and other resellers take up a growing proportion of their network users. Sprint, for instance, has embraced the MVNO model investing or partnering with virtual carriers from Virgin Mobile to the cable companies. At the end of the first quarter, Sprint stated it had 5.3 million wholesale subscribers, more than 10% of its total customers. While those deals have successfully added customers to the network, they bring in far fewer revenues and consequently Sprint and other carriers with MVNO deals have found their overall average revenue per subscriber decline.

Verizon Wireless, however, has its own MVNOs, including the much-hyped Amp’d Mobile. Amp’d Mobile has been ramping up its marketing efforts in the second quarter and recently opened up its first store retail channels.

Verizon Wireless released its subscriber numbers ahead of its full earnings, which are scheduled to go out August 1 when majority owner Verizon Communication publishes its results. Minority owner Vodafone reported earnings today, announcing a 4.5 million increase in worldwide customer growth (of which Verizon Wireless’s adds contributed to substantially), but revenue growth didn’t keep up, adding fuel to a shareholder movement to oust CEO Arun Sarin.