A Verizon store stands on Jan. 14, 2025 in New York City.
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Verizon raised its annual forecast for wireless subscriber additions on Monday, betting on strong demand for its simplified plans, and signed an AI infrastructure deal worth more than $2 billion with Amazon Web Services.
For the third quarter, the telecom carrier reported nearly double the analysts’ estimate for monthly-bill-paying wireless subscriber gains at 406,000, against Visible Alpha expectations of 209,439.
Verizon now expects to add between 1.1 million and 1.2 million postpaid phone subscribers this year compared with earlier projections of 750,000 to 1 million
It also raised its full-year adjusted earnings per share forecast to $5.04 to $5.06, from $4.99 to $5.04 earlier
However, third-quarter revenue of $34.3 billion fell short of analyst estimates of $34.74 billion, according to LSEG data
Revenue was pressured by lower device upgrade volumes as customers held on to their phones longer after Verizon began cutting device subsidies
A year into CEO Dan Schulman’s tenure, Verizon has pursued a broad overhaul of its business, restructuring operations and simplifying its wireless offerings
It launched its Simplicity plan in June, introducing transparent pricing and unlimited data
Under its deal with Amazon’s cloud unit, Verizon will provide high-capacity fiber-optic connectivity for AWS data centers, enabling faster, more reliable data transfers to support growing AI computing workloads
Verizon in July announced a more than $1 billion agreement with Google to connect data centers using dark fiber, highlighting how rising AI demand could open a new revenue stream beyond traditional wireless and broadband services for telecom operators