Verizon has raised its annual subscriber growth and earnings forecasts after reporting stronger-than-expected wireless customer additions in the 3rd quarter. The US telecom company has also signed an AI infrastructure agreement worth more than $2 billion with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to provide high-capacity fibre-optic connectivity for data centres.
Verizon added 406,000 monthly-bill-paying wireless subscribers during the quarter, nearly double the analyst estimate of 209,439, according to Visible Alpha. The company now expects to add between 1.1 million and 1.2 million postpaid phone subscribers this year, up from its earlier forecast of 750,000 to 1 million.
It also raised its full-year adjusted earnings per share forecast to 5.04–5.06, compared with the previous range of 4.99–5.04.
However, quarterly revenue stood at $34.3 billion, below analyst expectations of $34.74 billion, according to LSEG data. Revenue was affected by lower device upgrade volumes after Verizon began reducing device subsidies. The company expects this trend to continue in the 4th quarter. Verizon shares fell 2.5% in early trading.
Under its agreement with AWS, Verizon will provide high-capacity fibre-optic connectivity for the cloud provider’s data centres, supporting its expanding AI infrastructure requirements.
Verizon CEO Dan Schulman said the company was also in discussions with other hyperscalers, neocloud providers and large enterprise customers to supply dark or lit fibre connectivity. Dark fibre refers to unused fibre-optic infrastructure, while lit fibre is equipped with active transmission technology.
Schulman also addressed SpaceX’s plans to enter the mobile market. He said building a competing terrestrial network would take 4–6 years and require an investment of $300 billion to $500 billion.
Verizon would be “ferociously competitive” once SpaceX enters the market, he added.
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