HispanicBusiness

NEW YORK (dpa) - The U.S. telecommunications firm Verizon, the country's second largest, reported Monday that net income had dropped 9.8 percent compared to the third quarter of 2008 to $2.89 billion.

But the figures topped analysts' estimates, Bloomberg financial news agency reported.

The cost of cutting 4,000 jobs last quarter in the declining land- line business had eaten into net income, and another 4,000 jobs are to be cut in the current quarter, Verizon's chief financial officer John Killian said.

Revenues climbed 10.2 percent to $27.26 billion, in part from the one-time boost from the takeover of Alltel. Without considering the acquisition, revenues climbed 0.6 percent.

Verizon said it would begin selling Research In Motion Ltds BlackBerry Storm2 this week. The touch-screen smart phone will go for $179.99 with a two-year service contract and a mail-in rebate.

Verizon also is teaming up with Google Inc. to develop more devices using Google's Android operating system.

In its cell phone division, Verizon said sales of data services rose 48 percent compared to the previous year, and accounted for about one-third of customers bills.