Verizon 3Q earnings up 31 percent

NEW YORK: Verizon Communications Inc.'s earnings rose 31 per cent in the third quarter as it wireless arm did better than expected, while its traditional phone business kept declining.

The country's second largest telecommunications company, after AT&T Inc, said on Monday that it earned $1.67 billion, or 59 cents per share, compared with $1.27 billion, or 44 cents a share, a year ago.

Revenue rose 4.1 percent to $24.7 billion. Excluding charges for job cuts and merger costs, Verizon earned 66 cents per share, matching the average estimate of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters. They were expecting $24.5 billion in revenue.