Verizon, the US' second largest telco, said its earnings increased 15 percent in the fourth quarter, as the shrinking economy did little to dampen appetites for wireless, Internet and TV service.

The company said it earned $1.24 billion, up from $1.07 billion a year earlier.

Revenue rose 3.4 percent to $24.6 billion from a year ago. That fell slightly short of analyst expectations at $24.74 billion.

Revenue declined 2.6 percent to $11.9 billion on the wireline side, which includes Verizon's local-phone business and the services it sells to corporate and government customers. Verizon lost 12.2 percent of its residential phone lines in the last year, as customers signed on for phone service from cable companies or opted to use only their cell phones. As analysts had expected, the line losses sped up in the fourth quarter.

But the wireline business added 303,000 TV customers and 282,000 high-speed Internet customers on fiber-optic connections in the quarter, a record number.

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