Revenue from landlines fell by 4.8 percent while wireless services - including cell phones and data plans - were up 24.4 percent thanks largely to its January purchase of Alltel Corp.

Verizon, which is based in New York, earned $1.18 billion, or 41 cents per share, in the quarter compared with $1.67 billion, or 59 cents per share, a year ago.

Excluding one-time items, Verizon says it earned 60 cents per share - a penny above the average estimate of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters.

The third quarter included 19 cents per share in one-time items, including 13 cents related to layoffs. Last year's third quarter had 7 cents in one-time items.

Revenue rose 10 percent to $27.3 billion from $24.75 billion. If Alltel's results were included in last year's third-quarter, Verizon said revenue would have risen by 0.6 percent.

Verizon is second only to AT&T Inc. among U.S. phone companies.

In July, Verizon said it will cut more than 8,000 employee and contractor jobs by the end of the year in its wireline business.

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