US carrier Verizon beat the crunch during the third quarter, reporting a hefty 31.3 per cent rise in net income to $1.7bn, compared to $1.3bn in the same period last year.

On Monday, the company posted a strong performance, thanks largely to its wireless division, showing AT&T that it can keep pace even without the halo effect of the iPhone.

Total operating revenues increased 4.1 per cent year on year to $24.7bn.

Verizon Wireless chalked up 1.5 million organic net customer additions, taking its mobile subscriber base to 70.8 million; of which 68.8 million are retail customers.

In the wireline space, the company added 233,000 net new FiOS TV customers and 225,000 net new FiOS internet customers, bringing its FiOS subs base to 2.2 million.

Total broadband connections reached 8.5 million, a net increase of 129,000 over the second quarter 2008, including a decrease of 96,000 DSL connections.