Verizon exec allays economic worries
A Verizon Communications executive said Thursday that his company hasn't been hit by a U.S. economic slowdown.
Dennis Strigl, chief operating officer for Verizon, addressed concerns about an economic slowdown impacting the No. 2 phone company's business during a Citigroup investor conference. Earlier this week, AT&T's CEO Randall Stephenson spooked Wall Street by blaming a weak economy for a rise in residential broadband and landline customers who couldn't pay their bills during the fourth quarter of 2007.
Strigl said Verizon hasn't been affected in the same way. Specifically he said the company's small business and enterprise business units were performing as expected. He noted that there had been a slight uptick in some wireless customers not paying bills, but he did not attribute this to a weak economy.
Instead, Strigl emphasized competition from cable rivals as a concern rather than the economy.
Shares of Verizon were up $1.18 or 2.78 percent to $43.63 on the New York Stock Exchange Thursday afternoon. AT&T's stock was up only slightly 28 cents or 0.74 percent to $39.28.
Marguerite Reardon has been a CNET News reporter since 2004, covering cell phone services, broadband, citywide Wi-Fi, the Net neutrality debate, as well as the ongoing consolidation of the phone companies. E-mail Maggie. 
It even comes up on a google search...
http://www.google.com/search?source=ig&hl=en&rlz=&q=no+1+phone+company
Revenue, Income comparison:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AT&T
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verizon
ATT:
"Revenue $63.055 billion USD (2006)[2]
Net income $7.356 billion USD (2006)[2 "
Verizon:
"Revenue ≈ $90.000 billion USD (2006)[2]
Operating income $6.119 billion USD (2006)
Net income 6.119 billion 4.988 billion paid as dividend to stockholders USD (2007) "
Granted, ATT does have more net income...