Verizon adds customers to phone but oath revenues drop

Revenues from Verizon's largest wireless unit increased, but the carrier experienced a decline in its media and wireline advertising business. He also acknowledged that it was unlikely that we would achieve the long-term goals set for Oath, whose former leader Tim Armstrong has stepped aside recently.

Verizon has put the construction of a faster 5G network at the center of its long-term strategy.

Meanwhile, it faces intense competition for subscribers in a saturated wireless market. To appeal to customers who pay for unlimited data plans, the company has promoted its mix-and-match packages, which allow customers to choose from three unlimited plans. In August, he started offering customers unlimited packages six months of free access to

Apple
Inc.

Streaming music service.

Verizon has surpassed some Wall Street estimates regarding growth in its number of telephone subscribers. Wells Fargo analysts expected the carrier to add 200,000 postpaid phone subscribers in the quarter.

Verizon had 116.8 million wireless connections in late September, up from 116.5 million at the end of June. It is the first major US carrier to publish its quarterly results. Rival AT & T Inc. is expected to update investors Wednesday.

Quarterly business number of activity Oath, which hosts AOL,

Yahoo

and other brands, were $ 1.8 billion in the third quarter, down about 7% from the same period last year. Last quarter, analysts asked senior executives when this unit would show revenue growth.

Verizon said Tuesday that the unit's revenue would likely be "short-term stable," adding it was not expecting to meet its stated target of $ 10 billion in revenue by 2020.

In total, Verizon's net income was $ 4.92 billion, up from $ 3.62 billion a year ago. Revenues increased 2.8% to $ 32.6 billion.

Verizon and other operators have turned to gadgets such as smartwatches and connected vehicles to increase their revenues. The company said it added 300,000 connections for smartwatches, connected vehicles and other gadgets, while losing 80,000 connections for tablets.

Verizon's main goal is to reach the so-called postpaid customers who pay their bills at the end of the month under long-term contracts and that operators consider valuable because they provide a stable source of revenue.

In the third quarter, Verizon added 54,000 broadband home connections and 63,000 Fios video customers continued to lose ground, continuing to suffer from customer preference for video streaming over traditional cable television.

Hans Vestberg became Verizon's new Managing Director in the middle of the quarter, succeeding Lowell McAdam on August 1st.

Since then, the company has begun installing its 5G broadband home service at a small subset of its customers. As part of its cost reduction efforts, it has offered voluntary severance benefits to more than 40,000 workers and signed a $ 700 million outsourcing deal with an Indian company.

Infosys
Ltd.

Verizon has also taken steps to expand its network infrastructure by applying for a bid for the next millimeter-wave auction of the Federal Communications Commission.

Write to Sarah Krouse at [email protected]