Verizon Communications's second-quarter earnings rose 12%, the company said, while revenue was slightly shy of expectations and customers disconnected their landlines faster than before.

The nation's second-largest telecommunications company earned $1.88 billion, in the quarter ended June 30, up from $1.68 billion, a year ago.

Verizon said that excluding a merger-related item, it earned $0.67 a share, beating the average estimate of analysts polled by Thomson Financial by $0.02.

Revenue rose 3.7% to $24.1 billion from $23.27 billion a year ago. Thomson says analysts expected $24.2 billion.

Investors had been expecting the weak economy to catch up to the big telecommunications companies in the second quarter. AT&T's report last week showed that customers were quicker to move to wireless and cable telephone, but the company otherwise did better than expected.

Verizon lost 11.4% of its residential landlines in the past year, up from a 10.9% decline in the first quarter. But the second quarter is usually a poor one for landlines, said Verizon CFO Doreen Toben.

"I'd say we haven't seen any substantial change in trends," she said.

Looking ahead, Verizon expects to remain relatively insulated from the turmoil in the economy.

Source:AP News