Verizon adds 558,000 net new postpaid phone subscribers during Q4
Last year, Verizon spent $2.1 billion on C-band 5G as the carrier embarks on a plan to offer these mid-band 5G signals in 46 markets. This year, the company plans on spending between $5 and $6 billion on C-band as it continues to debut mid-band 5G in more areas of the country. In addition, Verizon could be looking to pick up more C-band spectrum during the next auction.
Verizon turned on its C-band 5G radios last week
As Verizon tries to correct the mistake it made by focusing first on high-band mmWave spectrum for mobile 5G, it hopes to add more C-band spectrum. The carrier figured that the sizzling fast download data speeds of 1Gbps or faster would attract consumers. But mmWave signals don’t travel far and are easily blocked by structures. As a result, in the real world, very few users ever connect to Verizon’s mmWave signals.
During the fourth quarter, the nation’s largest carrier reported a net addition of 1.058 million retail postpaid customers in with 558,000 phone subscribers. Dividing that up, consumer postpaid net additions came to 667,000 with 336,000 of them counting as phone subscribers.
With over 1 million net additions in postpaid during the fourth quarter of 2021, Verizon saw a huge improvement compared to the 279,000 net increase it announced during the same quarter one year ago. On a sequential basis, the 558,000 net additional postpaid phone subscribers added in Q4 topped the 429,000 that the carrier reported during Q3 of 2021 by 30%. As 2021 came to an end, Verizon had 142.8 million retail connections.
Verizon took over TracFone starting on November 23rd
Wireless service revenue rose 6.5% to $17.8 billion. The increase was driven by a hike in the amount of revenue generated by each account, volume growth, and the acquisition of TracFone Wireless which took place on November 23rd. TracFone added 20 million subscribers to Verizon’s pre-paid customer list (although to be fair, most TracFone subscribers already were using Verizon’s wireless network).
The number of Verizon prepaid subscribers declined by 85,000 during the fourth quarter. Revenue related to TracFone during the fourth quarter rose $700 million over the revenue that the MVNO generated during the same three months in 2020 when it was a customer of Verizon, purchasing wireless service as a wholesale account.
Commenting on the results, Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg said, “2021 was a transformational year for Verizon that will serve as a catalyst for us. We delivered on all of our goals in 2021 and made great progress on our five paths of growth, finishing the year with strong operating and financial momentum.”
Verizon is more than just wireless service. It also offers cable telephone, internet, and television service in nine U.S. states. All of Verizon’s businesses reported earnings per share (EPS) of $1.11, flat with the same figure announced during the previous fourth quarter. After adjustments, the company reported EPS of $1.31, an 8.3% increase from the $1.21 EPS that Verizon announced during the 2020 fourth quarter.
