It’s earnings time and the little factoids we glean from the  TV companies’ reports are whether they grew, didn’t grow, and by how much.

Verizon, which reported this morning, said its FiOS TV and Internet service grew. Surprised? Well, here in certain parts of Orange County, the company’s roll out of its fiber-optic TV and Internet service seemed to be at a standstill (see the earlier, “Verizon’s FiOS TV rollout slows in So Cal“). Verizon confirmed that much, although its take on slow down was that we here in O.C. were among the first and fastest to get the FiOS services. Growth efforts are now being concentrated elsewhere.

The company added 300,000 net new FiOS TV customers and 303,000 net new FiOS Internet customers. That brings FiOS numbers to 2.5 million TV users, up 82.1 percent from a year ago,  and 3.1 million Internet users, up 51 percent from a year ago.

While the service has taken a long time to get up and running, FiOS is definitely a way for Verizon to boost revenues. The average customer bill was $135, or nearly double the average Verizon customer.

The other interesting note in Verizon’s second-quarter earnings report is sales penetration, which is how many households in an area that can order FiOS actually do. In areas with FiOS Internet, penetration rates were at 28.1 percent by end of June, compared to 23.5 percent a year ago. Overall, 11 million premises can order FiOS Internet.

As for TV penetration, rates jumped to 24.6 percent, compared to 19.7 percent a year ago. Overall, 10.3 million premises can order FiOS TV.

Verizon began offering FiOS TV and Internet to 650,000 new homes during the second quarter for a total of 13.8 million premises or 43 percent of its wireline customer base.

Verizon believes that when it unveils new FiOS neighborhoods, the competing cable TV company scours neighborhoods offering better deals to keep customers from switching. Hence, instead of expanding, Verizon is concentrating on areas where FiOS service is available, like Seal Beach, to get penetration rates higher.

While FiOS is taking off, older technologies are in decline. FiOS helped offset Verizon’s losses in the DSL Internet users, which fell by 117,000 customers during the quarter. But that is apparently not enough to save its older wireless business. Bloomberg News is reporting that the company plans to cut 8,000 jobs in its wireless division by the end of the year.

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