GTE Corp put up third quarter numbers that didn’t move much from last year’s figures but still managed to beat estimates slightly. The Stamford, Connecticut-based telecom giant reported third- quarter net income that remained flat at $756m, or $0.79 per share – which bested the First Call consensus by $0.02. Revenue grew 11% to $5.94bn. The company says that its new data service initiatives, including residual costs from it acquisition of BBN Corp (CI No 3,155) reduced net income by $68m, or $0.07 per share. Without the costs, net income would have grown 9% and earnings per share would have increased by 10.3%. GTE Internetworking did add $127m to the company’s top line, however. The company saw an 8% growth in domestic access lines and 16% growth in domestic access minutes for long-distance calling. Sales of premium services grew by $176m during the quarter and 221,000 long-distance customers were added. The cellular business has seen 26% growth domestically with 140,000 new customers signed on during Q3. The company’s core operating income grew 9.8% to $1.59bn. Nine-month net income rose 4% to $2.09bn on revenue up 8.5% at $16.91bn. Earning per share grew 5.3% to $2.18 for the nine months.
