Latest news with #NewVerizonPlan
Miami Herald
24-04-2025
- Business
- Miami Herald
Verizon suffers major loss as customers switch gears
Verizon (VZ) ruffled a few feathers at the beginning of this year when it decided to continue down the path of hiking prices for its mobile services. Shortly after ringing in the new year, Verizon announced in January that it was raising the monthly prices of its myPlan and New Verizon Plan wireless accounts due to "rising operational costs." Don't miss the move: Subscribe to TheStreet's free daily newsletter By March, it increased the price of its Verizon Mobile Protect Multi-Device plan and Verizon Mobile Secure Multi-Device plan by $8, which applied to wireless customers with four to 20 lines. Related: Verizon announces generous offer, but customers should beware While these significant pricing changes took place, many Verizon customers took to social media to air their frustrations about higher prices, with some threatening to switch phone providers. Image source: Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images Amid these threats, Verizon recently revealed in its first-quarter earnings report for 2025 that while its wireless revenues increased by 2.7% year-over-year during the quarter, generating $20.8 billion, it faced a net loss of 289,000 total postpaid phone customers. In a note to investors, analysts at New Street Research said the loss in customers matches Verizon's "worst result on record." During an earnings call on April 22, Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg admitted that recent price increases contributed to the dip in customers during the quarter. Related: Verizon makes a desperate move to lure back fleeing customers "We did have a slow start on postpaid phone net adds, largely driven by elevated churn due to recent price ups and pressure from federal government accounts," said Vestberg. Despite this loss, Verizon Consumer Group CEO Sam Path emphasized during the call that the company does not regret recent price hikes. "We made a decision to price up certain cohorts in December and January, and they were the right trade-offs to make," said Path. "It helped us lock the revenue for the rest of the year, and it was the right thing to do." Vestberg also warned Verizon customers may soon see higher prices for mobile devices due to President Donald Trump's tariffs. Tariffs are taxes companies pay to import goods from overseas, and the additional cost is often filtered down to consumers through increased prices. "If we're going to see those type of increases on handsets that we've heard, we are not planning to absorb those," said Vestberg. "I mean, that needs to be passed onto the customers. That's the only way to do it because that's so much money." More Retail: AT&T quietly issues stern warning to customersSam's Club makes a big change to a beloved membership perkGameStop announces risky move amid store closures The warning comes after Verizon Chief Financial Officer Tony Skiadas flagged last month that the company is noticing year-over-year declines in the number of customers upgrading their phones. "Customers continue by choice to hang on to their phones for longer periods of time," said Skiadas during a Morgan Stanley conference last month. "The average upgrade cycle for us is up over 40 months. It's like 42 months right now. So the phones are made better. And from our standpoint, we'll continue to be disciplined in our approach to retention." In an effort to attract and retain customers in light of recent challenges, Verizon plans to pull several levers. "We are doubling down on our customer-first strategy with an increased focus on customer retention with the Verizon value guarantee, an industry-leading three-year price lock, free phone guarantee for everyone, and savings you cannot get elsewhere," said Path during the earnings call. Earlier this month, Verizon began offering a new three-year price lock guarantee to new and existing customers who have myPlan and myHome network plans. In addition, it has also started offering customers a free phone and home internet router when they trade in their devices. However, perks, discounts, taxes, and fees are excluded from this price-lock guarantee, which means that Verizon can still raise monthly bills by hiking fees or slashing discounts. Related: Veteran fund manager unveils eye-popping S&P 500 forecast The Arena Media Brands, LLC THESTREET is a registered trademark of TheStreet, Inc.
Time of India
22-04-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Verizon posts higher subscriber loss on price hikes, competition
By Harshita Mary Varghese Verizon Communications lost more wireless subscribers in the first quarter than Wall Street expected, as the U.S. telecom giant grappled with the fallout of recent price hikes and aggressive promotions from rivals. Shares of the company fell 3.4% in premarket trading. The company warned in March that off-season promotions by AT&T and T-Mobile would result in "soft" subscriber growth, fueling fears about intensifying competition in an industry vying for a limited pool of new subscribers. It also raised monthly prices for its customizable myPlan accounts with five lines or more by $3 per line, while customers on the New Verizon Plan faced a $4 per line increase for single mobile lines. "We had a pretty big price up in January, and the elasticity on that price up was higher than what we had anticipated," Sowmyanarayan Sampath, CEO of Verizon Consumer, told Reuters. That led to a higher churn, percentage of customers exiting a service, with Verizon reporting a loss of 289,000 monthly bill-paying wireless subscribers in the first quarter, after it added a record 568,000 customers in the December quarter. Analysts had expected the company to lose 166,400 subscribers, according to FactSet data. "March was very strong, especially the last two weeks and in April, we were running almost double-digit growth," Sampath said. The company introduced a three-year price guarantee in early April to lock in customers for its myPlan and myHome offerings. It also reaffirmed its annual adjusted profit and free cash flow outlook, a sign it was confident in its business plans amid economic uncertainty. In the first quarter, total revenue grew 1.5% to $33.5 billion, edging past analysts' estimates of $33.24 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG. Wireless service revenue grew 2.7% to $20.8 billion, helped by the price hikes implemented by the company.
CNA
22-04-2025
- Business
- CNA
Verizon posts higher subscriber loss on price hikes, competition
Verizon Communications lost more wireless subscribers in the first quarter than Wall Street expected, as the U.S. telecom giant grappled with the fallout of recent price hikes and aggressive promotions from rivals. Shares of the company fell 3.4 per cent in premarket trading. The company warned in March that off-season promotions by AT&T and T-Mobile would result in "soft" subscriber growth, fueling fears about intensifying competition in an industry vying for a limited pool of new subscribers. It also raised monthly prices for its customizable myPlan accounts with five lines or more by $3 per line, while customers on the New Verizon Plan faced a $4 per line increase for single mobile lines. "We had a pretty big price up in January, and the elasticity on that price up was higher than what we had anticipated," Sowmyanarayan Sampath, CEO of Verizon Consumer, told Reuters. That led to a higher churn, percentage of customers exiting a service, with Verizon reporting a loss of 289,000 monthly bill-paying wireless subscribers in the first quarter, after it added a record 568,000 customers in the December quarter. Analysts had expected the company to lose 166,400 subscribers, according to FactSet data. "March was very strong, especially the last two weeks and in April, we were running almost double-digit growth," Sampath said. The company introduced a three-year price guarantee in early April to lock in customers for its myPlan and myHome offerings. It also reaffirmed its annual adjusted profit and free cash flow outlook, a sign it was confident in its business plans amid economic uncertainty. In the first quarter, total revenue grew 1.5 per cent to $33.5 billion, edging past analysts' estimates of $33.24 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG. Wireless service revenue grew 2.7 per cent to $20.8 billion, helped by the price hikes implemented by the company.
Reuters
22-04-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Verizon posts higher subscriber loss on price hikes, competition
April 22 (Reuters) - Verizon Communications (VZ.N), opens new tab lost more wireless subscribers in the first quarter than Wall Street expected, as the U.S. telecom giant grappled with the fallout of recent price hikes and aggressive promotions from rivals. Shares of the company fell 3.4% in premarket trading. The company warned in March that off-season promotions by AT&T and T-Mobile would result in "soft" subscriber growth, fueling fears about intensifying competition in an industry vying for a limited pool of new subscribers. It also raised monthly prices for its customizable myPlan accounts with five lines or more by $3 per line, while customers on the New Verizon Plan faced a $4 per line increase for single mobile lines. "We had a pretty big price up in January, and the elasticity on that price up was higher than what we had anticipated," Sowmyanarayan Sampath, CEO of Verizon Consumer, told Reuters. That led to a higher churn, percentage of customers exiting a service, with Verizon reporting a loss of 289,000 monthly bill-paying wireless subscribers in the first quarter, after it added a record 568,000 customers in the December quarter. Analysts had expected the company to lose 166,400 subscribers, according to FactSet data. "March was very strong, especially the last two weeks and in April, we were running almost double-digit growth," Sampath said. The company introduced a three-year price guarantee in early April to lock in customers for its myPlan and myHome offerings. It also reaffirmed its annual adjusted profit and free cash flow outlook, a sign it was confident in its business plans amid economic uncertainty. In the first quarter, total revenue grew 1.5% to $33.5 billion, edging past analysts' estimates of $33.24 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG. Wireless service revenue grew 2.7% to $20.8 billion, helped by the price hikes implemented by the company.
Yahoo
22-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Verizon posts higher subscriber loss on price hikes, competition
(Reuters) -Verizon Communications lost more wireless subscribers in the first quarter than Wall Street expected, as the U.S. telecom giant grappled with the fallout of recent price hikes and aggressive promotions from rivals. The company warned in March that off-season promotions by AT&T and T-Mobile would result in "soft" subscriber growth, fueling fears about intensifying competition in an industry vying for a limited pool of new subscribers. It also raised monthly prices for its customizable myPlan accounts with five lines or more by $3 per line, while customers on the New Verizon Plan faced a $4 per line increase for single mobile lines. That led to a higher churn, percentage of customers exiting a service, with Verizon reporting a loss of 289,000 monthly bill-paying wireless subscribers in the first quarter, after it added a record 568,000 customers in the December quarter. Analysts had expected the company to lose 166,400 subscribers, according to FactSet data. The company introduced a three-year price guarantee in early April to lock in customers for its myPlan and myHome offerings. It also reaffirmed its annual adjusted profit and free cash flow outlook, a sign it was confident in its business plans amid economic uncertainty. In the first quarter, total revenue grew 1.5% to $33.5 billion, edging past analysts' estimates of $33.24 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG. Wireless service revenue grew 2.7% to $20.8 billion, helped by the price hikes implemented by the company. Verizon's consumer business added 137,000 wireless retail core prepaid customers, compared to 131,000 net losses a year ago, marking its best net additions since the acquisition of TracFone.
