Verizon regained its footing in Q2, posting a double-digit jump in profit and adding mobile subscribers despite headwinds caused by the Covid-19 (coronavirus) pandemic.

Profit attributable to Verizon rose 19.1 per cent year-on-year to $4.7 billion thanks in part to lower equipment costs, but revenue fell 5.1 per cent to $30.4 billion primarily due to a drop in mobile device revenue caused by store closures and Covid-19’s impact on consumer purchasing behaviour.

Mobile revenue fell from $22.7 billion to $21.7 billion; service turnover declined 1.7 per cent to $15.9 billion; with equipment 20.4 per cent lower at $3.75 billion.

It added 364,000 mobile subscribers, including 352,000 post-paid and 12,000 prepaid, improving upon 239,000 net additions in Q2 2019.

During an earnings call, CFO Matt Ellis (pictured) said around 1.5 million customers requested payment assistance in the quarter, but noted 80 per cent of those continued to make some kind of payment and a third were up-to-date by end-June.

“I am very, very encouraged by what we’ve seen and my expectation is the vast majority of these customers will be customers a year from now.”

He added approximately 60 per cent of stores closed during the pandemic reopened by end-June, up from around 30 per cent in April: it expects all stores to be open again by the end of this month.

CEO Hans Vestberg said “you should expect quite a lot of noise from us in the second half” regarding moves to expand its 5G networks.