Telecommunications companies have begun releasing their earnings reports for the latest quarter. Here is a summary of reports for selected telecommunications companies and what they reveal about their own and the industry's prospects.
— Thursday: Verizon Communications Inc.'s wireless division added a net 1.5 million devices to contract-based plans in the third quarter, more than it has in many years. Analysts were expecting it to add about 900,000. Including non-contract devices, overall additions were the strongest in four years. Verizon Wireless got a boost from its new Share Everything plan, which made it cheaper for households to add wireless service to tablets and laptops.
The launch of the iPhone 5 at the end of the quarter also helped Verizon's numbers. It activated 650,000 units of the new model in just over a week. It activated 3.1 million iPhones of all kinds in the quarter, accounting for 46 percent of its total smartphone activations.
Coming up:
— Wednesday: AT&T Inc.
— Thursday: Sprint Nextel Corp.
— Oct. 30: MetroPCS Communications Inc.
— Nov. 7: Leap Wireless International Inc.
— Nov. 8: T-Mobile USA, a unit of Deutsche Telekom AG; Windstream Corp.
Note: T-Mobile and MetroPCS have reached a deal to combine their cellphone businesses, but they will report separately until the deal is completed.
