Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/280411376?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Could Vine get pulled from the App Store for featuring porn?
The video-sharing app released by Twitter on Thursday is off to a bumpy start for hosting pornographic content. Vine could get the boot from the App Store if it does not clean up its content.
Twitter launched a Vine app today.
Vine
EnlargeJust days ago, Vine was getting praise from the Apple App Store as an Editor?s Choice pick. Now the mobile video-sharing app released by Twitter could get taken down for its plethora of pornographic content.
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Vine, which launched Thursday, hosts six-second videos, similar to Twitter?s 140-character-long tweets. Since its release, the app has come under scrutiny for allowing pornographic videos, many of them under hashtags like #porn, #nsfw, and #porno.
One risqu? video briefly made the Editor?s Picks list on Vine early Monday morning, according to CNET. It was quickly taken down, but the damage was done.?
A statement released by Twitter attributes the incident to human error.
?A human error resulted in a video with adult content becoming one of the videos in Editor?s Picks, and upon realizing this mistake we removed the video immediately,? the statement reads. ?We apologize to our users for the error.?
In response to concerns regarding sexual content, Twitter states it will remove all content that is flagged as inappropriate.
?Users can report videos as inappropriate within the product if they believe the content to be sensitive or inappropriate (e.g. nudity, violence, or medical procedures). Videos that have been reported as inappropriate have a warning message that a viewer must click through before viewing the video. Uploaded videos that are reported and determine to violate our guidelines will be removed from the site, and the user that posted the video may be terminated.?
The incident comes just days after the app received praise from Apple.?The App Store tweeted?on Friday that Vine was an Editor?s Choice app, mainly because of its ability to share six-second looping videos.
But Apple could remove Vine from the App Store if the app continues to feature sexual content. At least that is what happened to 500px, a photo-sharing startup based in Toronto. TechCrunch reported last week that the app was removed from the App Store due to concerns over nudity being featured in some of its images.
Rebecca Jeschke, a digital rights analyst at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, says she is not totally comfortable with Apple being the gatekeeper of her applications.
"Some people do want a highly curated environment on their phone,? she says. ?On the other hand, if you did a quick Google search for ridiculous app removals from the store, you?ll see unbelievable stuff.?
One instance Jeschke points to is the App Store?s ban of Pulitzer Prize-winning political cartoonist Mark Fiore?s app, which featured cartoons satirizing public figures. Apple?s reasoning? Fiore violated rules that prohibit making fun of public figures, according to Wire.
While Apple has the right to curate the products in the App Store, Jeschke says, users have the right to use another phone or to jailbreak the device. She also says it is another example of why the jailbreak exemption, which allows people to jailbreak their phones without violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, should be renewed.
?One of the reasons why that exemption is so important is because if you are in Apple?s nice, safe universe, they get to decide which apps you put on your phone and you should decide which apps you put on phone,? she says.
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Iran says it successfully sent a monkey into space
In this undated image taken from AP Television, scientists in Iran surround a monkey ahead of a space launch. Iran said it had successfully sent the monkey into space on Monday, Jan. 28, 2013, describing the launch as another step toward Tehran's goal of a manned space flight. According to a brief report on state TV, the monkey was sent up to a height of 120 kilometers (72 miles) on board a rocket dubbed Pishgam, or Pioneer in Farsi. (AP Photo/AP Video)
In this undated image taken from AP Television, scientists in Iran surround a monkey ahead of a space launch. Iran said it had successfully sent the monkey into space on Monday, Jan. 28, 2013, describing the launch as another step toward Tehran's goal of a manned space flight. According to a brief report on state TV, the monkey was sent up to a height of 120 kilometers (72 miles) on board a rocket dubbed Pishgam, or Pioneer in Farsi. (AP Photo/AP Video)
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) ? A gray-tufted monkey strapped in a pod resembling an infant's car seat rode an Iranian rocket into space and returned safely, officials said Monday in what was described as a step toward Tehran's goal of a manned space flight.
The mission also touched on concerns that advances in Iran's rocket expertise could be channeled into military use for long-range weapons that might one day carry nuclear warheads. Iran says it does not seek atomic weapons.
Launching a live animal into space ? as the U.S. and the Soviet Union did more than a half-century ago in the infancy of their programs ? may boost a country's stature. But John Logsden, a space policy professor emeritus at George Washington University, said Iran's achievement should draw no concern.
"A slight monkey on a suborbital flight is nothing to get too excited about," he said. "They already had the capability to launch warheads in their region."
U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said the U.S. had no way to confirm the monkey's voyage, but that it was concerned by the reports because "any space launch vehicle capable of placing an object in orbit is directly relevant to the development of long-range ballistic missiles."
The U.N. Security Council has expressly forbidden Iran from such ballistic missile activity, Nuland added.
In June 2010, the Security Council banned Iran from pursuing "any activity related to ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons."
With its ambitious aerospace program, Iran has said it wants to become a technological leader for the Islamic world.
It's not the first time Iran has announced it had rocketed a live creature out of the Earth's atmosphere. The country sent a mouse, a turtle and some worms into space in 2010, officials said.
But the purported successful voyage of the small monkey, shown wearing a protective vest, put Iran among just a handful of nations that have sent a primate into space in a mission seen as a precursor of human spaceflight. No name was given for the monkey.
Earlier this month, the director of Iran's space agency, Hamid Fazeli, said Iran wanted to launch its first manned space mission in as soon as five years ? a goal that stretches back to the shah's fascination with NASA years before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
"Iran is on its way to send a man into space," said Iran's Defense Minister Gen. Ahmad Vahidi in comments posted on the ministry's website.
He added that the capsule "returned to Earth safely at the expected speed, together with the monkey inside," without giving further details.
According to state TV, the rocket dubbed "Pishgam," or "Pioneer" in Farsi, reached a height of 120 kilometers (72 miles), pushing into the threshold of space.
Iran's state TV broadcast its first video pictures showing Iranian scientists fixing the seated monkey into the rocket before the launch. It did not give any details on the timing or location of the launch.
Still images also showed the monkey wearing a type of molded body protection and being strapped tightly into a red plastic seat. The monkey was shown immobilized with straps and his face poked through a purple shield that covered his head and upper body.
Fazel said the monkey parachuted safely with the remaining last stage of the rocket. The TV also showed experts walking to the site in the middle of a desert where the monkey landed.
Fazel told the state TV that Iran will launch a bigger rocket together with a larger animal to obtain greater safety assurances before sending a man into space.
For Iran, its aerospace program is a source of national pride at a time of slumping economic fortunes from Western sanctions. It's also one of the pillars of Iran's aspirations to be seen as the technological hub for Islamic and developing countries.
Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and others repeatedly describe scientific progress ? including Iran's uranium enrichment labs ? as a patriotic duty in response to Western economic and diplomatic pressures.
Iran's rocket technology alarms the West as giving it intercontinental reach for a possible arsenal. Already, conventional Iranian missiles are capable of reaching Israel and U.S. military bases in the Persian Gulf.
Iran insists it only seeks nuclear reactors for energy and medical applications. But authorities also say there can be no retreat from homegrown technological development in all fields ? from peaceful nuclear research to military surveillance drones.
Tehran has announced several successful launches of satellites, dating back to 2005 in a joint project with Russia.
In November, the head of Iran's powerful parliamentary committee on security and foreign policy, Alaeddin Boroujerdi, warned that "no power can prevent Iran's progress in scientific and nuclear science fields."
Similar statements were made last year when Iran announced plans for a new space center.
Few details have emerged on the new facility, but Iran already has a major satellite launch complex near Semnan, about 200 kilometers (125 miles) east of Tehran. A satellite monitoring facility is located outside Mahdasht, about 70 kilometers (40 miles) west of the Iranian capital.
Iran says it wants to put its own satellites into orbit to monitor natural disasters in the earthquake-prone nation, improve telecommunications and expand military surveillance in the region.
The mission involving the monkey drew historical links to the earliest years of the space race in the 1950s when both the U.S. and the Soviet Union tested rockets with animals on board, including American capsules carrying monkeys and Moscow's holding dogs. Many of the animals on the early flights perished because of equipment failure or technology unable to cope with re-entry from sub-orbit.
Later in the 1960s, the U.S. and Soviets sent animals into orbit for further biological tests on space flight and other nations, including France and China, sent animals on rocket flights.
"They're following the path that we followed more than half a century ago," Logsdon said, adding that Iran is probably ahead of India in terms of space ability, but behind its arch foe Israel.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals said it was "appalled" by photos of what it described as a "visibly terrified monkey crudely strapped into a restraint device."
It said it had urged Iran in 2011 not to send a primate into space.
"Iran is repeating the wasteful and cruel mistakes that marked the darkest days of the space race," PETA said in a statement.
____
Science Writer Seth Borenstein and Bradley Klapper in Washington contributed to this report.
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Saturday, January 26, 2013
Samsung may cut expenses as Apple shops elsewhere for chips
SEOUL (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics Co, due to report record earnings on Friday, may cut capital spending by as much as a fifth this year - a first reduction since the global financial crisis - as demand for computer chips weakens and rival Apple Inc looks set to buy fewer of its microprocessors used in the iPhone and iPad.
The South Korean firm, one of the technology industry's most aggressive spenders, has already seen Apple scale back buying Samsung flat screens and memory chips. Analysts predict the world's biggest maker of TVs, smartphones and DRAM memory chips could trim annual capex by 4-20 percent after investing a record 25 trillion won ($23.5 billion) last year.
By comparison, Taiwan's TSMC raised its capital spending to $9 billion this year, aimed in part at winning Apple orders away from Samsung.
"There are two key factors to watch in Samsung's earnings - capex plans and any guidance on smartphone sales, for this quarter or for all of 2013," said Jin Sunghye, an analyst at KTB Securities. "With a bleak PC sales outlook and growing prospects that Apple won't increase its chip purchases, Samsung is very likely to take a disciplined capacity expansion approach."
Samsung, valued at $220 billion, has said October-December operating profit will likely be a record 8.8 trillion won ($8.3 billion), up 89 percent from a year ago.
Quarterly revenue is expected to have risen around 19 percent to 56.2 trillion won ($52.7 billion) - around $565 million a day - and just behind Apple's $54.5 billion.
Samsung declined to comment on its capex plan.
SEASONAL BLIP
Samsung's run of five record quarters may see a blip in January-March on weaker seasonal demand before picking up again later in the year, boosted by the expected launch of the new Galaxy S4- which is generating the kind of anticipatory buzz normally reserved for Apple products.
Analysts bet Samsung will get through any seasonal weakness better than rivals as it offers a broader range of smartphones - from the very cheap to the very expensive - and is seeing strong sales of its Note phone-cum-tablet, or 'phablet'.
"Samsung is likely to show a less severe seasonal earnings swing than its peers as it's got the Galaxy Note II, which is in the early stage of its life cycle and selling well. It will make up for any slowdown in the (Galaxy) SIII," said Park Young, an analyst at Woori Investment & Securities.
Apple shipped 47.8 million iPhones in the December quarter, a record that nonetheless disappointed many analysts accustomed to years of outperformance. Samsung is estimated to have sold around 63 million smartphones in the quarter, including 15 million Galaxy S IIIs and 7 million Note IIs, propelling its mobile business profit to around 6 trillion won, or 70 percent of total profit.
"When the new Galaxy will be launched is a key earnings swing factor," said Greg Noh, an analyst at HMC Investment Securities, noting that a late-March launch would boost Samsung's smartphone shipments by 3 million in the current quarter, bumping up earnings that are currently seen dipping by 4.6 percent to 8.4 trillion won, according to Thomson Reuters SmartEstimates.
CHANGING FORTUNES
Cupertino, California-based Apple missed Wall Street's revenue forecast for a third straight quarter on Wednesday as iPhone sales lagged expectations, driving Apple shares down more than 10 percent early on Thursday.
Apple shares have dropped by around a third since mid-September as investors fret that its days of hyper growth are over and its devices are no longer as 'must-have' as they were.
Over the same period shares in Samsung have risen 12 percent as a company once seen as quick to copy others' ideas now sets the pace in innovation. At the world's biggest electronics show in Las Vegas this month, Samsung unveiled a prototype phone with a flexible display that can be folded almost like paper, and a microchip with 8 processing cores, creating a buzz that these may be used in the next Galaxy range.
"It's very probable to us that the Exynos 5 Octa (processor) will find its way into the Galaxy S4," UBS analyst Nicolas Gaudois wrote in a recent note. "It also looked as if the curved display is close enough to finished product. We came away even more convinced that displays will provide significant differentiation to Samsung devices, and application processors will materially grow over time."
Samsung's component business is also benefitting from a rebound in memory chip prices after major suppliers such as Toshiba Corp cut production last year.
The commodity chip supply balance has also improved sharply, after chipmakers cut output of PC memory chips and increased production of the more profitable mobile chips to ride the boom in smartphones and tablets.
Global PC shipments are set to rise 8 percent this year, after declining for the first time in more than a decade, and this could drive DRAM chip revenue up by 14 percent to $30 billion, according to research firm IHS iSuppli.
Samsung's flat screen business, which last year lost 220 billion won, is also recovering on the back of demand for high-end screens for Galaxy smartphones and as demand for TV screens increased during the year-end holiday season.
($1 = 1066.2000 Korean won)
(Reporting by Miyoung Kim; Editing by Ian Geoghegan)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/samsung-may-cut-expenses-apple-shops-elsewhere-chips-205546557--finance.html
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Thursday, January 24, 2013
Researchers map emotional intelligence in the brain
Wednesday, January 23, 2013
A new study of 152 Vietnam veterans with combat-related brain injuries offers the first detailed map of the brain regions that contribute to emotional intelligence ? the ability to process emotional information and navigate the social world.
The study found significant overlap between general intelligence and emotional intelligence, both in terms of behavior and in the brain. Higher scores on general intelligence tests corresponded significantly with higher performance on measures of emotional intelligence, and many of the same brain regions were found to be important to both. (Watch a video about the research.)
The study appears in the journal Social Cognitive & Affective Neuroscience.
"This was a remarkable group of patients to study, mainly because it allowed us to determine the degree to which damage to specific brain areas was related to impairment in specific aspects of general and emotional intelligence," said study leader Aron K. Barbey, a professor of neuroscience, of psychology and of speech and hearing science at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Illinois.
A previous study led by Barbey mapped the neural basis of general intelligence by analyzing how specific brain injuries (in a larger sample of Vietnam veterans) impaired performance on tests of fundamental cognitive processes.
In both studies, researchers pooled data from CT scans of participants' brains to produce a collective, three-dimensional map of the cerebral cortex. They divided this composite brain into 3-D units called voxels. They compared the cognitive abilities of patients with damage to a particular voxel or cluster of voxels with those of patients without injuries in those brain regions. This allowed the researchers to identify brain areas essential to specific cognitive abilities, and those that contribute significantly to general intelligence, emotional intelligence, or both.
They found that specific regions in the frontal cortex (behind the forehead) and parietal cortex (top of the brain near the back of the skull) were important to both general and emotional intelligence. The frontal cortex is known to be involved in regulating behavior. It also processes feelings of reward and plays a role in attention, planning and memory. The parietal cortex helps integrate sensory information, and contributes to bodily coordination and language processing.
"Historically, general intelligence has been thought to be distinct from social and emotional intelligence," Barbey said. The most widely used measures of human intelligence focus on tasks such as verbal reasoning or the ability to remember and efficiently manipulate information, he said.
"Intelligence, to a large extent, does depend on basic cognitive abilities, like attention and perception and memory and language," Barbey said. "But it also depends on interacting with other people. We're fundamentally social beings and our understanding not only involves basic cognitive abilities but also involves productively applying those abilities to social situations so that we can navigate the social world and understand others."
The new findings will help scientists and clinicians understand and respond to brain injuries in their patients, Barbey said, but the results also are of broader interest because they illustrate the interdependence of general and emotional intelligence in the healthy mind.
###
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: http://www.uiuc.edu
Thanks to University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for this article.
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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/126414/Researchers_map_emotional_intelligence_in_the_brain
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Verizon adds 'record-high' 2.1 million subscribers in Q4 2012, but still makes a loss
Verizon has just announced that the last quarter was its best yet -- in regard to subscriber numbers. Those 2.1 million new additions mean that Verizon can now lay claim to 98.2 million customers in total, while smartphones have now claimed an additional 5 percent of this base, up to 58 percent. Since its last report, Q4 consolidated revenues totaled $30 billion for the first time, although profits were hit by $135 million in damages from Hurricane Sandy as well as a one-time pension cost that meant the company took a charge of between $9 and 10 billion for the quarter. This made up a $1.93 billion loss for the carrier, which remained, unsurprisingly, upbeat. According to Verizon, its LTE network is now available to 273 million people and CEO Lowell McAdam is calling the last twelve months "a year of solid progress."
Earnings Impacted by Previously Announced Non-Operational Charges
4Q 2012 HIGHLIGHTS
Wireless
8.5 percent year-over-year increase in service revenues in 4Q 2012; 8.4 percent year-over-year increase in retail service revenues.
2.2 million retail net additions, excluding acquisitions and adjustments, including a record-high 2.1 million retail postpaid net connections; low retail postpaid churn of 0.95 percent; 98.2 million total retail connections, 92.5 million total retail postpaid connections.
4G LTE service now available to more than 273 million people in 476 markets across the U.S.
Wireline
4.1 percent year-over-year increase in consumer revenues; consumer ARPU (average revenue per user) up 9.5 percent year over year, to $105.63.
144,000 FiOS Internet and 134,000 FiOS Video net additions, with continued increased sales penetration for both services; 5.4 million total FiOS Internet, 4.7 million total FiOS Video customers.
Consolidated Earnings
A loss of $1.48 in earnings per share (EPS), compared with a loss of 71 cents per share in 4Q 2011, impacted by non-cash pension items in both quarters and additional non-operational debt retirement and other restructuring items in 4Q 2012.
A 7-cent-per-share impact due to Superstorm Sandy yielded 38 cents per share in adjusted EPS (non-GAAP), compared with 52 cents in adjusted EPS in 4Q 2011.
NEW YORK - Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE, Nasdaq: VZ) today reported strong customer and revenue growth in Verizon Wireless and Verizon FiOS services in fourth-quarter 2012 -- positioning the company well for 2013.
Verizon Wireless reported record-setting customer additions in the quarter, while Verizon FiOS customer additions were higher in fourth-quarter 2012 than in the prior two quarters, despite the impact of Superstorm Sandy.
"Verizon seized growth opportunities in the fourth quarter to cap a year of solid progress across the entire business," said Lowell McAdam, Verizon chairman and CEO. "We delivered a total return of 13.2 percent to shareholders in 2012, and we enter 2013 ready to accelerate the momentum we've achieved and create significant shareholder value in the years to come."
4Q and Full-Year Earnings Results
Due to the impact of non-operational items announced earlier this month, Verizon reported a loss of $1.48 in EPS in fourth-quarter 2012, compared with a fourth-quarter 2011 loss of 71 cents per share.
A reduction of 7 cents per share due to impacts from Superstorm Sandy yielded a total of 38 cents per share in adjusted fourth-quarter 2012 earnings (non-GAAP). Fourth-quarter 2012 charges totaled $1.86 per share: $1.55 per share related to severance, pension and benefit charges primarily for the annual actuarial valuation of Verizon's benefit plans as well as the annuitization of various pension liabilities during the quarter, and 31 cents per share related to the early retirement of debt and other restructuring activities.
Comparable adjusted fourth-quarter 2011 earnings of 52 cents per share excluded charges of $1.23 per share, primarily related to the valuation of pension plans.
On an annual basis, Verizon reported 31 cents in 2012 EPS, compared with 85 cents per share in 2011. Adjusted annual EPS (non-GAAP) was $2.24 in 2012, compared with $2.15 in 2011.
Revenue Growth Across All Strategic Areas; Continued Strong Cash Flow
In fourth-quarter 2012, Verizon's consolidated quarterly operating revenues exceeded $30.0 billion for the first time in company history. This represented a 5.7 percent increase compared with fourth-quarter 2011 and was the company's highest year-over-year quarterly growth rate in 2012.
For full-year 2012, Verizon's revenues totaled $115.8 billion, an increase of 4.5 percent, or $5.0 billion, compared with 2011. In fourth-quarter 2012, Verizon saw year-over-year revenue increases across all strategic growth areas: 8.5 percent for Verizon Wireless service revenues, 15.7 percent for FiOS revenues and 5.3 percent for strategic enterprise services.
Cash flow from operating activities totaled $31.5 billion in 2012, an increase of 5.7 percent compared with $29.8 billion in 2011.
Capital expenditures were $16.2 billion in 2012, including $135 million in companywide capital related to Superstorm Sandy recovery efforts, and totaled about $70 million less than in 2011. Free cash flow (non-GAAP, cash flow from operations less capex) was $15.3 billion for the year, an increase of 13.1 percent compared with $13.5 billion in 2011.
Verizon maintained a strong balance sheet, with year-end 2012 total debt of $52.0 billion, down from $55.2 billion at year-end 2011.
Verizon Wireless Delivers Record-High Customer Additions and Strong Revenue Growth
In fourth-quarter 2012, Verizon Wireless delivered the highest number of retail postpaid net additions of any quarter in its history, strong growth in revenues, an increase in smartphone penetration, and continued low retail postpaid churn.
Wireless Financial Highlights
Total revenues were $20.0 billion in fourth-quarter 2012, up 9.5 percent year over year. Service revenues in the quarter totaled $16.4 billion, up 8.5 percent year over year. Retail service revenues grew 8.4 percent year over year, to $15.8 billion.
For full-year 2012, total revenues were $75.9 billion, up 8.1 percent over full-year 2011, and service revenues were $63.7 billion in 2012, up 7.7 percent year over year.
Retail postpaid ARPA (average revenue per account) grew 6.6 percent over fourth-quarter 2011, to $146.80 per month. As customers continue to add multiple devices to accounts following the introduction of the Share Everything Plan in June, Verizon Wireless now reports ARPA instead of ARPU since customers can share data among multiple devices.
In fourth-quarter 2012, wireless operating income margin was 24.0 percent and segment EBITDA margin on service revenues (non-GAAP) was 41.4 percent, down 80 basis points from fourth-quarter 2011. For full-year 2012, operating income margin was 28.7 percent, up 230 basis points from full-year 2011; segment EBITDA margin was 46.6 percent, up 180 basis points year over year.
Wireless Operational Highlights
Verizon Wireless added 2.2 million net retail connections in the fourth quarter, including a record-high 2.1 million retail postpaid net connections. The company added 5.0 million net retail postpaid connections in 2012, the most in four years. These additions exclude acquisitions and adjustments.
At the end of 2012, the company had 98.2 million retail connections, a 6.6 percent increase year over year -- including 92.5 million retail postpaid connections.
Verizon Wireless had 35.1 million retail postpaid accounts at the end of the fourth quarter, a 1.4 percent increase over the fourth quarter 2011, and an average of 2.6 connections per account, up 4.3 percent year over year.
At year-end 2012, smartphones accounted for more than 58 percent of the Verizon Wireless retail postpaid customer phone base, up from 53 percent at the end of third-quarter 2012.
Retail postpaid churn was 0.95 percent in the fourth quarter and retail churn was 1.24 percent, both up 1 basis point year over year.
Verizon Wireless continued to roll out its 4G LTE mobile broadband network, the largest 4G LTE network in the U.S. As of today (Jan. 22), Verizon Wireless 4G LTE service is available to more than 273 million people -- close to 89 percent of the population -- in 476 markets across the U.S.
The company continued to enhance its device lineup with new smartphones and tablets. In the fourth quarter, Verizon Wireless launched eight 4G LTE smartphones: the DROID RAZR HD and DROID RAZR MAXX HD by Motorola; Windows Phone 8X by HTC; Nokia Lumia 822; Samsung Galaxy Note II; Spectrum 2 by LG; Samsung Galaxy Stratosphere II; and the DROID DNA by HTC. In addition, Verizon Wireless launched three tablets in the quarter: the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2, Apple iPad with Retina display and Apple iPad mini.
Verizon Wireless announced it will begin offering shared data plans for business on Jan. 24, 2013, with the Share Everything Plan for Small Business and the Nationwide for Business Data Packages and Plans.
Wireline Reports Continued Strong FiOS Customer and Revenue Growth
In the Wireline segment, FiOS customer growth in fourth-quarter 2012 was greater than in the prior two quarters, despite the disruption caused by Superstorm Sandy. In global enterprise and wholesale, increased sales of strategic services continued to help mitigate lower revenues resulting from secular and global economic impacts.
Wireline Financial Highlights
Fourth-quarter 2012 operating revenues were $10.0 billion, a decline of 1.5 percent compared with fourth-quarter 2011. Consumer revenues grew 4.1 percent compared with fourth-quarter 2011. On an annual basis, 2012 consumer revenues totaled $14.0 billion, an increase of 3.2 percent compared with 2011 and Verizon's highest annual revenue growth rate in consumer wireline in 10 years.
Consumer ARPU for wireline services increased to $105.63 in fourth-quarter 2012, up 9.5 percent compared with fourth-quarter 2011.
ARPU for FiOS customers continues to be more than $150. FiOS services produced about 68 percent of consumer wireline revenues in fourth-quarter 2012. About two-thirds of FiOS consumer customers have purchased a "triple play" of phone, Internet and video services.
Global enterprise revenues totaled $3.8 billion in the quarter, down 2.1 percent compared with fourth-quarter 2011. Sales of strategic services increased 5.3 percent compared with fourth-quarter 2011 and represented 54 percent of global enterprise revenues. Strategic services include Verizon Terremark cloud and data center services, security and IT solutions, advanced communications, and strategic networking.
For 2012, wireline operating income margin was 0.2 percent and wireline EBITDA margin (non-GAAP) was 21.3 percent, including the negative impact of fourth-quarter storm recovery. Excluding identifiable storm impacts (non-GAAP), wireline operating income margin was 1.0 percent and wireline EBITDA margin was 22.1 percent.
Wireline Operational Highlights
Verizon added 144,000 net new FiOS Internet connections and 134,000 net new FiOS Video connections in fourth-quarter 2012. Verizon had a total of 5.4 million FiOS Internet and 4.7 million FiOS Video connections at the end of the quarter, representing year-over-year increases of 12.6 percent and 13.3 percent, respectively.
FiOS penetration (subscribers as a percentage of potential subscribers) continued to increase. FiOS Internet penetration was 37.3 percent at the end of fourth-quarter 2012, compared with 35.5 percent at the end of fourth-quarter 2011. In the same periods, FiOS Video penetration was 33.3 percent, compared with 31.5 percent. The FiOS network passed 17.6 million premises at year-end 2012.
Broadband connections totaled 8.8 million at year-end 2012, a 1.4 percent year-over-year increase. Revenues from broadband connections grew 3.1 percent -- to $3.5 billion for full-year 2012 -- over the same period, driven by customer purchases of higher-speed FiOS services.
Verizon has been replacing high-maintenance portions of its residential copper network with fiber optics to provide enhanced services and to reduce ongoing repair costs. In 2012, Verizon migrated 223,000 homes to fiber, which contributed to an 11 percent improvement in trouble reports across Verizon's entire copper network for the year. The company has a target of 300,000 additional migrations within FiOS markets in 2013.
To meet rapidly growing customer-traffic demands, Verizon deployed additional 100G (gigabits per second) technology on network routes in the U.S. and Europe in fourth-quarter 2012. In the U.S., these high-capacity routes included Atlanta to Tampa, Kansas City to Dallas and Salt Lake City to Seattle. During 2012, the company added 13,000 miles to its 100G network in the U.S.
Verizon Enterprise Solutions completed agreements with multinational and U.S. corporations The Coca-Cola Company, Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels Ltd., Bridgestone Americas, CME Group, Redbox and Shred-It for advanced business technology solutions.
Verizon Enterprise Solutions launched a comprehensive cloud and data center infrastructure portfolio specifically designed to help the health care industry meet the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) requirements for safeguarding electronic protected health information.
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Verizon
Source: Verizon
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/KD64grdmI7c/
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