Verizon CEO Says Q2 Subscribers Reached 1.4M, Addresses Netflix Feud

Jul 11, 2014 03:33 PM EDT | Matt Mercuro

Verizon Communications confirmed on July 10 that it added an additional 1.4 million postpaid subscribers in the second quarter.

The number is great news for the company, which fell short of expectations in Q1.

The company reported a record growth in its tablet business, and a "strong" growth in its smartphone business, according to Lowell McAdam, Verizon's chief executive, who spoke with Reuters.

"The second quarter will be strong for us, which is an indication that the whole industry is very strong," said McAdam.

Verizon is expected to officially announce second-quarter earnings on July 22. It had posted a 20 percent decline last quarter in net additions of its postpaid customers, or those who subscribed to monthly calling plans.

Verizon's stock jumped 1.3 percent at $49.54 on July 10 trading and was the best performer in the Dow Jones, according to Reuters.

McAdam also confirmed that Verizon is open to purchasing Dish Network Corp's spectrum, or airwave licenses.

"Dish has got some great spectrum. Spectrum is the life and blood of the mobile industry." McAdam said, according to Reuters. "Anything around spectrum is always of interest for us."

He added that currently the company is not interested in acquiring Dish, dispelling rumors that the company was looking for a deal to rival AT&T's $48.5 billion bid for satellite operator DirecTV.

"I haven't seen a scenario that owning a satellite company is of interest to us, not being critical of any other deal out there," McAdam said.

McAdam also addressed a dispute that the company had in June with Netflix after the video streaming company started sending messages to customers blaming Verizon's broadband service for slow deliveries of its movies and TV shows.

McAdam said Verizon allows all users access to all lawful content, but Netflix should have to pay for priority access for faster service since its streaming takes up "100 percent more capacity" than surfing the web, according to Reuters.

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