The following commentary comes from an independent investor or market observer as part of TheStreet's guest contributor program, which is separate from the company's news coverage.

NEW YORK (Trefis) -- Verizon(VZ) announced mixed results for the past quarter, as a record quarterly growth in revenues was offset by high subsidies for Apple(AAPL) iPhones and several one-time expense items.

The largest U.S. wireless carrier said that its revenues grew 7.7% over the same period last year, the most in over a decade of operations, on the back of strong smartphone sales as well as gains in postpaid and FiOS subscriptions.

However, the company ended the quarter with a $212 million loss, down from a $4.6 billion profit returned in the period last year as it had to incur a $5.6 billion pre-tax pension charge, in addition to losses from the snowstorm that hit the north-east in October.

Verizon recently reported its fourth-quarter results.

Since the net loss incurred is hardly on account of deteriorating fundamentals but mostly due to unusual one-time expenses, we still believe the company is well placed for the long-term given its recent investments in 4G and FiOS, as well as a number of spectrum acquisition deals it had signed towards the end of last quarter.

See our complete analysis for Verizon here.

Lucrative Postpaid Data Revenue

Verizon activated a record 4.3 million iPhones last quarter, almost doubling its previous 2.3 million record from two quarters back, as it added a net 1.2 million postpaid subscribers in the quarter.

The holiday quarter saw huge sales of other smartphones as well as smartphone penetration reached 44% of Verizon's postpaid base, up from 39% a quarter ago. The increased adoption of smartphones bodes well for the future as they bring in the more lucrative contractual postpaid subscribers which not only lowers the churn rate but also increases data revenues for the company in the longer run. Postpaid data ARPU for the quarter increased by 14.3% over the same period last year to $22.76.

Margin Hit

In the short term, however, Verizon's margins will take the brunt of the huge subsidies that the smartphones, especially popular ones like the iPhone, come with. For example, a basic model of the iPhone 4S costs around $650 for the carriers that then subsidize it heavily to sell for $199 in order to entice customers to sign a two-year contract with them. Not surprisingly the company's wireless gross margins fell by almost 500 basis points over last quarter. However, the sequential growth seen in postpaid ARPU levels keeps us confident in the company's long-term strategy.