Verizon Communications reported growth in 5G adoption, broadband subscribers and business applications during a presentation to investors Wednesday (Oct. 20).
The mobile carrier reported that in its Consumer segment, as of the end of the third quarter, more than 25% of consumer wireless phone customers now have a 5G-capable device. In addition, 66% of the new consumer accounts gained in the third quarter are on a premium unlimited plan.
“On the commercial front, we’ve got great momentum in the five-year adoption, but over 25% of our consumer phone base using a 5G-capable device,” said Verizon Chairman and CEO Hans Vestberg. “This is tracking well ahead of the 4G adoption. For context, 12 months after 4G launched, 10% of the devices were on 4G; less than 12 months after 5G DSS launched, more than a quarter were on 5G devices. And it’s growing at a rapid pace.”
Rebound in the Commercial Space
In third quarter 2021, Consumer reported 423,000 wireless retail postpaid net additions. This consisted of 267,000 phone net additions and 223,000 other connected device net additions, offset by 67,000 tablet net losses. The Consumer segment now includes 95.0 million wireless retail connections.
In its Business segment, Verizon reported seeing strong demand for wireless services across multiple verticals. Business reported 276,000 wireless retail postpaid net additions in the third quarter, including 162,000 phone net additions.
Commercial businesses, which include small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) and enterprises, saw higher growth than the public sectors.
Distance Learning Disconnects
“In 3Q ‘21, we’ve seen a rebound in the commercial space while distance learning disconnects have driven public sector volumes to lower levels,” said Verizon Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Matt Ellis. “We expect these trends to continue into the fourth quarter.”
In August, Verizon announced the availability of on-premises private 5G Edge compute with Microsoft Azure to enterprise customers in the U.S. This enables massive bandwidth and ultra-low latency to deploy real-time enterprise applications.
During the third quarter, the mobile carrier also launched Verizon Small Business Digital Ready program, an online curriculum designed to give small businesses the personalized tools to succeed in today’s digital world.
Mobility and Broadband is the Essential Infrastructure
“That’s a great opportunity for us and that’s what we outlined already in 2019 when we decided to transform that business to see that we are really well prepared for capturing those opportunities and those transformations that all the enterprises or the medium companies will do to digitalize over time,” Vestberg said.
Overall, in wireless, including both its Consumer segment and its Business segment, the company reported 699,000 retail postpaid net additions, including 429,000 phone net additions. That results in 122.0 million total retail connections.
The company also reported 129,000 total broadband net additions, defined as wireline and fixed wireless. The total includes 74,000 wireline (Fios and DSL) and 55,000 fixed wireless.
Looking ahead at full-year 2021, Verizon now expects total wireless service revenue growth of around 4%, which is at the higher end of the prior guidance of 3.5% to 4%.
“The whole idea with the strategy we’ve laid out is just playing straight into what’s happening in the market, where mobility and broadband is the essential infrastructure for every individual in the world at the moment,” Vestberg said.
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