Verizon issued their second quarter earnings this morning, reporting that they saw reduced net income of $1.48 billion, down from $1.88 billion one year earlier. Verizon added 1.1 million new wireless subscribers compared to AT&T's 1.4 million, bringing Verizon's wireless subscriber total to 87.7 million. Despite the lure of the iPhone, Verizon retains the wireless industry's lowest postpaid customer defection (churn) rate of 1.01 percent.

FiOS growth was strong during the traditionally slow second quarter, with Verizon adding 300,000 net FiOSTV customers for a grand total of 2.5 million TV customers. The company also set a record with 303,000 new FiOS broadband subscribers during the quarter for a total of 3.1 million. Including both FiOS and DSL customers, Verizon now serves 9.1 million total broadband customers.

On the negative side, Verizon saw 117,000 fewer vanilla DSL customers on the quarter, some of whom upgraded to FiOS, and some of whom switched to faster cable broadband. Lower net income was due to continuing residential landline losses, and a 6.7 percent recession-related drop in Verizon's global enterprise business.

Still, Verizon's FiOS growth is impressive. The company passed 650,000 new premises in the second quarter, and broadband penetration among potential customers jumped from 23.5 to 28.1 percent. According to Verizon, the average FiOS customer bundles and spends more than $135 a month. All the while, FiOS installs get cheaper and faster, while Verizon continues to focus on wiring apartment complexes in DC, Philly, and New York. Verizon recently even raised prices on customers, increasing revenue per user on their deployment.

There's few who'll argue that Verizon's FiOS investment was a necessity if the carrier wanted to remain relevant, with the exception of Sanford Bernstein expert "wrongologist" (and mainstream technology press quote machine) Craig Moffett. Moffett's been criticizing FiOS since its inception, and continues his chicken little routine by ignoring FiOS's healthy growth and telling Bloomberg that investors should run from the stock.You'll recall that Moffett's the same "expert" who thinks network upgrades are a bad idea, the incredibly profitable wireless industry is nearing collapse, and AT&T should eliminate unlimited $30 data plans. Unlike Moffett, most investors have come around to the idea that Verizon made the right choice to invest heavily in last mile fiber.

Of course that investment has come with a human cost: to please investors like Moffett, Verizon has been selling its rural DSL networks to smaller carriers who've been unable to manage them. Meanwhile, to offset continued landline losses, the company says they'll need to lay off 8,000 workers in the second half of 2009.