Verizon reported a total operating revenue of $35.7 billion in Q4 2024, up 1.6% from Q4 2023
Verizon CEO Hans Vestburg told investors that as he looks back on 2024 — and the telco’s last quarter, in particular — he feels “cautiously optimistic.” It was certainly a strong quarter, with the company reporting a total operating revenue of $35.7 billion in Q4 2024, up 1.6% from Q4 2023 and a consolidated net income of$5.1 billion, compared to a net loss of $2.6 billion in fourth-quarter 2023.
And this strong quarter led to a good year: Full-year 2024 earnings per share (EPS) were $4.14, compared to $2.75 for full-year 2023 and total operating revenue was $134.8 billion for full-year 2024, up 0.6% compared to full-year 2023.
Here are three additional takeaways from Verizon’s Q4 and FY results:
Subscriber growth across the board
Verizon more than doubled its wireless postpaid phone net additions compared to 2023, and in Q4 2024, reporting the strongest quarterly results for subscriber growth across mobility and broadband in more than a decade, adding almost 1 million subscribers in Q4 2024.
Specifically, the telco saw a quarterly total postpaid phone net additions of 568,000, up from 449,000 in fourth-quarter 2023 and a total Q4 wireless service revenue of $20 billion, up 3.1% year-over-year, which is said was driven primarily by pricing actions, sales of perks and add-on services and growth in fixed wireless access (FWA).
Digging into that FWA growth a bit ore, Verizon reported FWA additions of 373,000 in fourth-quarter 2024, growing the base to nearly 4.6 million fixed wireless subscribers. It expects hit 8 to 9 million fixed wireless access subscribers by 2028.
It also achieved 408,000 broadband and 51,000 Fios internet net additions in the quarter. Total broadband connections grew to more than 12.3 million as of the end of the quarter representing a 15% increase year-over-year, the telco said.
An AI strategy and vision
Around the release of its FY 2024 results, Verizon announced its AI Connect product suite, which is said is “designed to enable businesses to deploy…AI workloads at scale. In its announcement, Verizon highlighted McKinsey estimates that by 2030 60% to 70% of AI workloads will be “real-time inference…creating an urgent need for low-latency connectivity, compute and security at the edge beyond current demand.”
Executive Vice President and CEO of Verizon Business Group Kyle Malady told investors on the earnings call that Verizon AI Connect is more than a suite of offerings. It’s “the name of our strategy,” he said. “It’s a vision that allows us to utilize existing assets in new ways to service this technology revolution … This is not a theoretical discussion. We are seeing increasing demand for our AI connect offerings. We already have a funnel of over $1 billion simply leveraging our existing infrastructure. Major players such as Google and Meta have purchased capacity in our network with the intent of using it for their AI workloads,” he continued.
He added that Verizon is also working closely with other key partners like NVIDIA to “reimagine how telco functions can work along with AI workloads,” as well as GPU as-a-service provider and cloud computing provider Vultr, who will initially deploy its GPU infrastructure in one of the telco’s data centers, using its fiber network for distribution. “The bottom line is we are ready to help power the AI ecosystem. We have the assets, the expertise and the vision to deliver AI solutions at scale,” Malady summarized.
Scaling private networks
Finally, Vestburg noted that Verizon continues to scale its private networks business, calling out 2024 contracts with Xerox, Cummins, Inc, FIFA and most recently, the U.S. Air Force, which involves upgrading 4G/5G infrastructure, including additional C-Band carriers and new “macro builds” and small cells, at 35 Air Force bases throughout the U.S. This includes a major standalone 5G (5G SA) network deployment at Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida.
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