Verizon sought to draw attention to its work outside wireless with a new ad campaign highlighting its advancements in the technology arena, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported.

Diego Scotti, Verizon’s CMO, noted the operator is expanding beyond its traditional mobile business to initiatives including IoT, smart cities and telematics. With its recent acquisition of Yahoo and subsequent creation of Oath, Verizon is also pushing into the media and advertising space as well.

Scotti told WSJ the new campaign is part of the operator’s quest to establish clear business goals and a broader standing in society. The end goal is to position Verizon “squarely in the centre” as a leader and a technology brand.

Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam explained in a LinkedIn post the company is seeking to marry technology with humanity so “everyone, everywhere can benefit from the promise of the digital world”.

“We don’t wait for the future, we build it,” he added.

The campaign focuses on Verizon’s work in areas including smart cities, IoT data tracking and potential advances in connected health which could be enabled by Verizon’s 5G network.

Verizon’s pivot comes as growth in the wireless segment stagnates and the operator faces increasing competition from its tier-1 rivals.

In Q3, Verizon’s wireless service revenue dropped 5.1 per cent year-on-year, while operating income and EBITDA were flat.

The operator added 247,000 phone subscribers in Q3 and CFO Matt Ellis said Verizon expected to get “more than our fair share” of upgrade activity during the holiday selling period (in Q4).

However, there could be clouds on the horizon as T-Mobile US CFO Braxton Carter in November revealed Q4 porting ratios were “up significantly” against all carriers.