With the release of its third quarter earnings on Tuesday, Verizon said it added 100,000 postpaid phone subscribers — a massive jump from the 8,000 the carrier reported for its 2022 second quarter.
Over the last year, the nation’s largest wireless provider has fallen behind its more aggressive rivals, AT&T and T-Mobile, and has only started to respond over the last few quarters. The number of new postpaid subscribers, or customers who pay at the end of the month and typically have higher credit scores and phone bills, is a key measure of a wireless company’s health.
The carrier reported a turnover of 1.15% of its retail postpaid consumers.
“We continued to make steady progress in the third quarter with a clear focus on growing wireless service revenue, delivering healthy consolidated adjusted [earnings] and increasing free cash flow,” Verizon Chairman and CEO Hans Vestberg said in a statement. “Our financial discipline, combined with our healthy balance sheet, enabled us to increase our dividend for the 17th consecutive year, which is the longest current streak of dividend increases in the U.S. telecom industry.”
The mobile carrier reported a net profit of $4.76 billion for its third quarter, or about $1.17 a share. Last year, Verizon’s net income was $5.3 billion, or about $1.31 a share.
Verizon announced a total revenue of $33.33 billion, a drop of about 2.6% compared to the 3rd quarter of 2022. In addition, the company added 384,000 home internet users. As of its third quarter, Verizon has about 10.3 billion total broadband subscribers.