Verizon today reported growth in its first-quarter revenues, particularly its Verizon Wireless operations, but saw profits shrink 8.4%, due in part to FiOS costs and the divestiture of two business units.

The company reported profits of 51 cents per share or $1.5 billion, down from 56 cents per share or $1.63 billion for the year-previous quarter. The company did report consolidated revenue growth of $22 billion and operating income growth of $3.8 billion, up 6.4% and 19.5% respectively over the first quarter of 2006.

The cost of building the FiOS network, which will reach 9 million new homes this year, was 11 cents per share.

That included 1.7 million net wireless customer adds, bringing Verizon Wireless to 60.7 million customers total, and a reduction in wireless churn to 1.08% and .89% for postpaid wireless customers. Wireless revenue was up 17% to $10.3 billion and wireless data was up 80% to $1.6 billion.

FiOS added 141,000 net customers in the first quarter for a current total of 348,000, and is growing at a rate of 2200 customers per day. The company saw 1.6% consumer revenue growth for its legacy Verizon customers and 2.3% growth in Verizon Business revenue. Verizon also said it had 182,000 more broadband and video adds than primary phone line losses and a $4.35 increase in Average Revenue per User (ARPU) in the consumer market. Verizon added 416,000 new broadband connections, for a total of 7.4 million, up 30.1% over the previous year.

Doreen Toben, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Verizon, described the quarter as one of “excellent top-line growth” and also pointed to an increase in operating margin from 16.2% to 17.3% as an indication that Verizon is focused on “profitable growth.”

On the Verizon Business side, the company saw 2.4% growth in enterprise revenue and 23% growth in strategic services revenue to $1.2 billion.

The company reduced its debt by $7.7 billion year over year and completed a $472 million share repurchase in the quarter.