By Roger S. Conrad
Many investors love to hate the two largest US telecom companies, AT&T and Verizon Communications. But these behemoths beat expectations and posted impressive subscriber additions in the second quarter, sparking a sharp rally in their stock prices.
Verizon Communications gained 614,000 net wireless contracts, reducing churn in the post-paid segment to 0.7 percent. Rolling out an un- limited data plan to rival T-Mobile US' offering helped to reverse a first-quarter decline in the company's wireless subscriber base.