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Verizon Growth Slows, Internet TV Service Coming 'Late Summer'

Growth continues to slow for Verizon according to the latest Verizon earnings report. While the company was quick to proclaim it added 1.1 million postpaid wireless subscribers in the quarter, about 852,000 of those additions were tablets -- a good number of which Verizon gives away on promotion. Verizon's net postpaid phone additions for the quarter were 321,000, a far cry from the kind of numbers seen by current industry darling T-Mobile.

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Things have also slowed for Verizon on the fixed-line broadband front.

The company continues to bleed POTS and DSL users it has been intentionally driving away for years in markets in doesn't want to upgrade. Verizon lost 396,000 voice and and 97,000 DSL users on the quarter, but added 26,000 FiOS video subscribers and a net 72,000 FiOS Internet subscribers. The company blamed increased competition for the slow growth.

Verizon's also been selling off much of it's fixed-line infrastructure and there's some unconfirmed rumors in our forums the company may not be finished.

All of that said, money doesn't appear to be much of an issue for big red thanks largely to wireless data revenues; the company posted earnings of $4.23 billion on total revenue of $32.2 billion over the last three months. The company is fresh off its $4.4 billion acquisition of AOL, and will use the acquired ad technology to fuel its upcoming new Internet video service, which Verizon CFO Fran Shammo today stated would be launching "late summer."

Most recommended from 43 comments



buzz_4_20
join:2003-09-20
Dover, NH

15 recommendations

buzz_4_20

Member

You Know...

I bet they could increase subscriber growth by expanding that FIOS footprint.

Zenit_IIfx
The system is the solution
Premium Member
join:2012-05-07
Purcellville, VA
·Comcast XFINITY

3 recommendations

Zenit_IIfx

Premium Member

VZ IPTV

It is indeed coming. Talked to a VZ tech a few months ago and they have been holding regular meetings at the local level about it. The best benefit is that VZ will now be able to offer TV to FiOS customers in areas without a TV franchise. There are quite a few CO's that are FiOS enabled but cant do TV due to politics OR VZ not wanting a franchise in that market.

Since IPTV is pretty bandwidth hungry (unless you do LTE Broadcast, but the product is seemingly wireline targeted - NOT the other rumored LTE TV product) it may result in a push to finish up the FTTP conversion of CO's that are only partially FiOS enabled. That's the feeling of the techs around here - VZ has 3 CO's that are partially built out, 1 has a TV franchise in 70% of the territory and a 40% completed build (the CO WC I live in), the other 2 do not. Those other two only cover greenfield construction with FTTP at the moment (5% area covered with FiOS), but they are starting a very slow overbuild in chronic copper trouble areas that I have witnessed myself.

This gives VZ more incentives to wrap up their long-term FTTP conversion. If your CO has OLT's installed now you will probably see FiOS eventually, it will be a long wait though as there is NO hurry to reap the benefits of reduced cost of operation and increased income FTTP provides.