Verizon Communications said its revenue fell 1.9 percent to $32.9 billion in the quarter ended March 31. Verizon’s net income rose 6.5 percent to $5 billion from a year earlier.
Verizon has generated service revenue of $27.152 billion (–0.2 percent) and wireless equipment revenue of $5.76 billion (–9.1 percent) in Q1 2023.
Verizon has generated revenues of $24.857 billion (–1.7 percent) from consumer business and $7.494 billion (–2.8 percent) from business customers. Within its consumer business, Verizon’s broadband unit has 8.202 million customers (+14.9 percent).
Verizon’s first-quarter 2023 capital expenditures were $6 billion, and included most of the remaining $1.75 billion under the company’s C-Band related spending program.
Verizon Chairman and CEO Hans Vestberg said: “Last month, we announced that our 5G Ultra Wideband now reaches more than 200 million people as we continue to undergo the most aggressive network deployment in our company’s history.
“With our mobile and broadband capabilities, and our focus on network strength, we are giving more customers in more places a superior network experience.”
VERIZON LOST CUSTOMERS
Verizon has lost 127,000 prepaid mobile subscribers in the first quarter of 2023.
Verizon said its wireless postpaid ARPU rose 4.9 percent to 130.06 during January-March 2023, thanks to its premium customers. Verizon’s postpaid customer base fell 1.4 percent to 33.034 million in Q1 2023 from 33.514 million in Q1 2022.
Verizon said its prepaid ARPU dropped 0.6 percent to $30.71 from $30.89.
Verizon’s mobile plans are the most expensive among rivals such as AT&T and T-Mobile. As a result, the pre-paid user-base of Verizon fell 6.1 percent to 22.331 million.
While some of that impact was offset by a surge in the broadband business thanks to Verizon scaling up the technology behind 5G connectivity, its fast-growing rivals AT&T and T-Mobile are catching up with increased promotions and more developed 5G networks.
AT&T CEO John Stankey last week said lower-income consumers were making the kind of decisions that people make when money is a little bit tighter.
