Today Verizon Wireless announced the 1st quarter earnings for 2023. With that they announced a total revenue of $32.9 billion, a drop of about 1.9% compared to the 1st quarter of 2023.
Verizon lost 335,000 Fios TV customers, down about 9.6% from the year before. This works out to be about 3,600 subscribers canceling TV every day for Verizon.
Verizon added 437,000 broadband customers, including 393,000 5G wireless home internet customers. This is great news for Verizon’s hope to grow its home internet service by offering 5G home internet.
“Our operational and financial results reflect the steps that we have taken to improve our performance. Compared to this time last year, we have added more postpaid phone gross additions to our network and have increased our cash flow from operations and free cash flow,” said Verizon Chairman and CEO Hans Vestberg. “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.”
This strong 5G Home Internet growth helped offset the losses in TV. Verizon ended the 1st quarter with 114,523 total wireless customers prepaid and post. This is down slightly from the same time in 2022 when Verizon had 115,186 subscribers.
“Consumer Fios revenue for the first quarter 2023 was $2.9 billion, slightly
down year over year as the positive effects of Fios internet customer growth
were offset primarily by the decline in video and voice connections, consistent
with trends we see across the industry.” Verizon said in a statement on its 2023 1st quarter financial remarks.
Verizon, like all traditional TV providers, is continuing to see declining TV customers in 2023. The question now is how fast will these numbers keep dropping.