Verizon sees gains in mobile and FiOS

Citing strength in consumer wireless and wireline services, Verizon reported Q3 consolidated revenues of $31.7 billion, up 2.5 percent from a year earlier, but down 2.3 percent on a comparable basis excluding divestitures and acquisitions (Yahoo). Verizon reported EPS of 89 cents in the quarter, compared with 89 cents in third-quarter 2016.

Cash flow from operations totaled $17.2 billion during the first nine months of 2017, and year-to-date capital expenditures have totaled $11.3 billion. CAPEX for the full year is now expected to at the lower end of the range of $16.8 billion to $17.5 billion.

Some selected highlights from the Q3 financial report

Wireless

• There was a net increase of 603,000 retail postpaid connections in third-quarter 2017. 
• Net phone additions of 274,000 included 486,000 smartphones in the quarter, compared with 242,000 smartphone additions in third-quarter 2016. The 603,000 postpaid net adds included tablet net adds of 91,000 and net adds of other connected devices, led by wearables, of 238,000. The company had 109.7 million retail postpaid connections and 5.6 million retail prepaid connections at the end of the quarter.
• Verizon now has approximately 78 percent of its postpaid phone base on unsubsidized service pricing plans, compared with 60 percent in third-quarter 2016.
• Just over 50 percent of Verizon’s available low- and mid-band spectrum portfolio is being used for 4G LTE.

Wireline

• Total Fios revenues grew 4.8 percent, and consumer Fios revenues grew 4.6 percent, comparing third-quarter 2017 with third-quarter 2016 and including the impact of two marquee pay-per-view events in the current quarter. Fios Gigabit Connection, which offers high-speed broadband, continues to gain traction with customers.
• In third-quarter 2017, Verizon added a net of 66,000 Fios Internet connections and lost a net of 18,000 Fios Video connections, reflecting the ongoing shift from traditional linear video to over-the-top offerings. At the end of the quarter, Verizon had 5.8 million Fios Internet connections and 4.6 million Fios Video connections.

Other

Enterprise solutions revenue, excluding XO, decreased 5.0%, while growth in fiber-based products continues. On a constant currency basis, revenue was down 5.3%. 

Telematics revenue was over $220 million in the quarter, including Fleetmatics and Telogis. Total IoT revenue on an organic basis increased approximately 13% in the quarter.

On the analyst conference call, Matt Ellis Verizon’s EVP and CFO, said development spending is focused on the Verizon Intelligent Edge Network, which extends from the wireless or wireline access networks to an intelligent distributed computing platform to a highly automated software-enabled core network