Today Verizon Wireless announced its 2nd quarter earnings for 2023. With that, they announced total revenue of $32.59 billion, a drop of about 3.5% compared to the 2nd quarter of 2022. Verizon lost 69,000 Fios TV customers, down about 8.6% from the year before.
It is important to note that Verizon no longer sells its Fios TV service to new customers. Now it offers YouTube TV to its home internet customers.
Verizon added more than 400,000 broadband customers, including 384,000 5G wireless home internet customers. This is great news for Verizon’s hope to grow its home internet service by offering 5G home internet. This is the 3rd quarter in a row that Verizon has seen over 400,000 new broadband customers.
“In the second quarter, we showed progress in our key priorities of growing wireless service revenue, delivering healthy consolidated adjusted EBITDA, and increasing free cash flow,” said Chairman and CEO Hans Vestberg. “We look forward to extending our network leadership in the second half of the year by continuing our rapid C-Band deployment as we are laser focused on providing value to our customers. The steps that we have taken to improve our operational performance are working, and we are confident that we will achieve our financial targets for the full year.”
Verizon said their wireless service revenue increased 3.5% year over year. Verizon did say their postpaid service lost 136,000, and their prepaid service lost 304,000 subscribers. This comes as Verizon is facing still competition for wireless services.
Recently it was announced that Verizon would be raising the price of its 5G Home Internet service $10 a month for new customers. This move seems to be an effort to help drive up revenue.
Verizon announced some projections for the rest of 2023, including:
- Total wireless service revenue growth23 of 2.5 percent to 4.5 percent.
- Adjusted EBITDA1 of $47.0 billion to $48.5 billion.
- Adjusted EPS1 of $4.55 to $4.85.
- Adjusted effective income tax rate1 in the range of 22.5 percent to 24.0 percent.
- Capital spending in the range of $18.25 billion to $19.25 billion.
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.