Verizon Revenue Up on Postpaid Subscriber Increase

Verizon Communications Inc's quarterly revenue rose 6.8 percent due to higher net addition of postpaid subscribers and a rise in average revenue per account as users added more devices to shared data plans.

The company, however, reported a loss of $2.15 billion, or 54 cents per share, for the fourth quarter compared with a profit of $7.92 billion, or $1.76 per share, a year earlier, mainly due to valuation of benefits plan and pension adjustments.

Excluding items, Verizon earned 71 cents per share, matching Wall street estimates, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Revenue rose to $33.19 billion from $31.07 billion, slightly higher than analysts' expectations of $32.69 billion.

Verizon's retail postpaid average revenue per account rose to $158.82 from $157.21, but was below $161.64 estimated by analysts polled by research firm StreetAccount.

The company net added 2 million retail postpaid subscribers.

Total revenues in its wireless business grew 11 percent from a year ago but dropped 1.6 percent for its FiOS Internet and video product business.

Shares in verizon dropped 1.3 percent to $47.62 in premarket trading.

(Reporting by Anya George Tharakan in Bengaluru and Malathi Nayak in New York; Editing by Kirti Pandey and Chizu Nomiyama)