Verizon Communications said Friday that its profit had doubled since the same time last year. Although most of the increase this quarter is the result of changes to pension plans, a portion of it can be attributed to an uptick in contract wireless subscribers that puts Verizon’s number of such customers almost three times ahead of ATT’s this quarter.

During the quarter, the company's profits rose to $1.38 billion, or 49 cents per share, from $659 million, or 23% per share. Factoring in pension adjustments, however, earnings were about even with last year, according to the Associated Press.

Verizon Wireless launched its 4G network in the U.S. and announced five new 4G devices (though neither the Droid Razr or iPhone 4S were in stores before the quarter ended). It posted a gain of 882,000 contract subscribers — the most valuable type. The increase marks a 51% improvement over last year that nearly triples the number that its competitor AT&T announced yesterday.

However, Verizon Wireless subscriber numbers were still below analyst expectations.

"It's difficult to complain about (subscribers)," Stifel Nicolaus analyst Chris King told Reuters. "It's going to be so much better than everybody else's. They're still continuing to take market share."