Verizon said its capital spending (Capex) for 2019 will be $17 billion to $18 billion, including the expansion of 5G network — showing a slight increase from the 2018 level.

In 2018, Verizon’s capital expenditures (Capex) reached $16.7 billion.

Capex in Verizon’s wireless business fell 17.7 percent to $8.486 billion in 2018 from $10.31 billion in 2017. Wireless Capex during Q4 2018 dropped 30.8 percent to $2.342 billion. The company did not share specific reasons for the drop in wireless Capex.

Wireline Capex of Verizon rose 17.2 percent to $6.255 billion in 2018 as compared with $5.339 billion in 2017. Verizon’s wireline Capex dipped 6.4 percent to $1.855 billion in Q4 2018.

Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg said: “2018 was a remarkable year full of 5G firsts, including being first in the world to commercially deploy 5G with our 5G Home product. We’re beginning a period of transformational change. We are focused on delivering customers a best-in-class and game-changing experience on our networks.”

Ericsson and Nokia are the top telecom network suppliers to Verizon. The telecom giant does not source telecom network from China-based Huawei and ZTE as part of the US government policy.

Verizon, the largest telecom operator in the US based on subscribers, has launched 5G home internet in four cities last October.

The company said in December it was working with Samsung Electronics to launch 5G-enabled smartphones in the first half of 2019.

Verizon said the total number of employees fell to 144,500 in 2018 from 155,400 in 2017. Verizon’s employees in wireline business dropped to 54,300 in 2018 from 57,100 in 2017.

Verizon revenue

Verizon reported total revenue of $34.3 billion (+1 percent) in Q4 2018.

Verizon generated revenue of $24.4 billion (+2.7 percent) from wireless, $2.1 billion (–5.8 percent) from media business, $242 million from the telematics business and $7.4 billion (–3.2 percent) from wireline business in Q4 2018.

Verizon reported 1.2 million retail post-paid additions in Q4 2018 including 653,000 phone additions, 11,000 tablet additions and 556,000 other connected devices, primarily wearables.

Verizon’s total revenue in 2018 rose 3.8 percent to $130.9 billion. Verizon generated revenue of $91.7 billion (+4.8 percent) from wireless business, $29.8 billion (+3 percent) from its wireline business, while the balance is from media and telematics business.

Verizon said it’s on track to deliver against its goal to achieve $10 billion in cumulative cash savings by 2021. This initiative includes zero-based budgeting and has yielded approximately $2.3 billion of cumulative cash savings by year-end 2018, of which a majority has been derived from capital efficiencies.

Baburajan K