Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg (pictured) fleshed out details of a cost-cutting scheme to reduce annual expenditure by between $2 billion and $3 billion by 2025, part of efforts to tackle the impact of inflation among other goals.

He used the operator’s Q3 earnings call to note the programme was focused on several business areas, including digitalisation efforts to enhance customer experience, and streamlining internal operations through automation and process enhancements.

“While parts of this will benefit the bottom line, a portion of the savings will be reinvested into the business to help accelerate opportunities,” he said.

CFO Matt Ellis explained the first step for the initiative was a recent formation of Verizon Global Services, “one part of a larger programme to leverage cross-functional opportunities across the business”.

Churn
Verizon’s post-paid user base declined by 189,000 during Q3 compared with additions of 267,000 in the comparable 2021 period, attributed to higher prices introduced earlier this year, increases Vestberg and Ellis said boosted its bottom-line.

Recon Analytics analyst Roger Entner noted it was the third consecutive quarter of net subscriber losses for Verzion’s consumer unit, telling Mobile World Live the fact the operator’s price rises were around two-times the level implemented by AT&T pointed to “more underlying problems”.

Post-paid phone net additions for Verizon Business stood at 197,000, with revenue up 1.9 per cent to $7.8 billion.

“Verizon is now the leader in wireless churn”, he added.

Wireless service revenue of $19 billion was up 10 per cent, primarily driven by the company’s ownership of Tracfone.

Vestberg stated the company was on track to cover 200 million people with C-Band in Q1 2023, up from 160 million today. Expenditure on the rollout over the opening nine months was $4.5 billion: Ellis noted total capex for the move is $10 billion.

Verizon reported 108,000 fixed wireless access net additions in Q3, with more than 40 million households covered.

Net income attributable to Verizon fell 23.5 per cent to $4.9 billion, on revenue of $34.2 billion, up 4 per cent.