Verizon sees no impact from slower U.S. economy
(Adds Verizon and Embarq quotes, share moves)
NEW YORK Jan 10 (Reuters) - Verizon Communications Inc (VZ.N) said on Thursday the U.S. economic slowdown has not affected its frontline business units.
Verizon Chief Operating Officer Denny Strigl told an investor conference that his company is seeing no impact on its sales to small businesses, enterprise businesses or on total access phone lines, which he said was "in good shape."
Strigl cited a "slight tick-up" in bad debt for the wireless business, but said he did not believe it was due to an economic slowdown. Verizon jointly owns Verizon Wireless with the UK's Vodafone Group (VOD.L).
For its high-speed Internet access business, Strigl said Verizon is seeing competitive pressure from rivals like cable operators.
"We're seeing more of a competitive impact than ... any economic impact," he said speaking at the Citi Media & Telecommunications Conference.
Shares of Verizon rose 84 cents, or 2 percent, to $43.31 on the New York Stock Exchange early Thursday afternoon.
Randall Stephenson, chief executive of AT&T Inc (T.N), said during a presentation at the conference on Tuesday that the largest U.S. phone company saw softness in its consumer business, spooking investors who thought the telecoms industry would be sheltered from the U.S economic slowdown through 2008.
But Strigl was bullish about Verizon's prospects.
"Frankly we'll take a look-and-see attitude for 2008, but I'm not sure what all the hubbub has been about out of this conference this week," he said.
Industry analysts have also pointed to the largest players, like AT&T and Verizon, as having enough advantage of scale to weather a recession. Some analysts see smaller telecoms companies as more vulnerable.
But phone company Embarq Group EQ.N said it has not seen a huge impact from the slowdown, in comments similar to those it made on a quarterly conference call in November.
"There's no denying that at least in certain sectors of the economy, that there's some weakness," Embarq Chief Financial Officer Gene Betts told the conference. "We also said that we didn't see huge impact on our business .... Our comments back then still stand."
On the NYSE, AT&T dipped 18 cents, or almost 5 percent, to $38.82, while Embarq rose $2.36, or 5.07 percent, to $48.90.
(Reporting by Yinka Adegoke, editing by Richard Chang)
((e-mail:yinka.adegoke@reuters.com Reuters Messaging: Yinka.adegoke.reuters.com@reuters.net; +1 646 223 6081))
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