Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg (pictured) credited a tariff change and rebuilt leadership team as the primary factors for a turnaround in its consumer wireless post-paid phone net additions in Q4 2023.

The operator reported 318,000 wireless retail post-paid phone net additions compared with 41,000 in Q4 2022.

Verizon stated the results marked the best quarterly performance in four years.

Consumer post-paid churn was 1.08 per cent.

Combined consumer and business additions of 449,000 post-paid phone customers compared with a 217,000 gain in Q4 2022.

Total wireless service revenue was $19.4 billion, up 3.2 per cent.  

Verizon’s consumer post-paid wireless sector recorded subscriber losses in the previous three quarters, but the company introduced its myPlan tariffs in May 2023 in an attempt to win back customers.

Vestberg noted Verizon added 13.1 million subscribers since myPlan was launched.

“It is clear that we have momentum in consumer as we move into 2024,” Vestberg stated on the earnings call.

Wireless post-paid additions also benefited from the launch of the newest iPhone and the holiday selling period, but Vestberg claimed the results were not a “one quarter phenomena”.

Verizon made several changes to its executive team in 2023, most recently hiring Leslie Berland as CMO of its consumer sector in December 2023.

“We made significant changes to how we operate and to our team, and those changes paid off,” Vestberg stated.

Vestberg credited Verizon Consumer Group CEO Sowmyanarayan Sampath and his team for leading the turnaround in the post-paid consumer sector, which included shifting its sales unit from a national to local structure.

LightShed Partners partner and TMT Analyst Walter Piecyk stated more detail is needed “on whether this structural change offers more upside in upcoming quarters”.

Vestberg noted higher growth rates in post-paid consumer wireless and lower churn in markets where C-Band was deployed.

The operator reported a net loss of 289,000 wireless retail prepaid customers.

IT added 375,000 fixed wireless access (FWA) customers to bring its total to more than 3 million.

More than 80 per cent of the consumer FWA additions were in Verizon’s initial 76 C-Band markets.

Full year FWA net adds of 1.5 million were up from 1.2 million in Q4 2022.

It reported a net loss of $2.6 billion compared with a profit of $6.7 billion, with revenue flat a $35.1 billion.