The monthly Verizon Wireless bill increase of 6.5% is about double what analysts had expected. Verizon also reported 90.4 million postpaid (two-year contract) device connections, and increase of 1.5 million net connections over a year earlier, and well above analyst projections. Each account had an average of 2.6 device connections per account, up 4% over last year, Verizon said. All types of wireless device connections on various service plans at Verizon Wireless total 95.9 million.

LTE networks are clearly popular with Verizon customers, who purchased 4.5 million LTE devices in the third quarter, including the popular 5 and Samsung Galaxy S III. Verizon turned on 3.1 million iPhones in the quarter, and 21% (650,000) were iPhone 5s with LTE.

Smartphones now make up 53% of Verizon's postpaid customer base, up from 50% at the end of the second quarter. Smartphones drive up average monthly service costs just because of the way they are used for accessing data, Gold said.

Matt Hamblen covers mobile and wireless, smartphones and other handhelds, and wireless networking for Computerworld. Follow Matt on Twitter at or subscribe to . His email address is .

See