Verizon released Q3 results inline with expectations and Sprint altered unlimited data plans
Verizon Communications this week kicked off third quarter earnings season reporting relative financial stability and continued customer growth challenges.
The carrier said it added 1.2 million direct net connections during the latest quarter, which was down more than 20% from the same quarter last year. Verizon Wireless’ postpaid performance suffered a 15% year-over-year drop, while it continues to lose the path in terms of prepaid performance with direct net additions dropping from just 9,000 customers last year to a loss of 80,000 prepaid customers this year.
In addition, Sprint late last week said it some situations it will begin to deprioritize customers signed up for unlimited data plans that exceed 23 gigabytes of data usage per month. The move, announced by CTO John Saw, is part of a “quality of service” practice instituted by Sprint that it says will help protect service levels for 97% of its customer base. The practice is said to only impact those unlimited data customers that have exceeded the 23 GB limit per month at cell sites that are seeing high congestion levels. Those customers will see their network speeds reduced, though will still continue to have access to unlimited data.
On this week’s Carrier Wrap show, RCR Wireless News Editor-in-Chief Dan Meyer and Managing Editor Sean Kinney discuss those top headlines. Further insight is provided by Bill Ho, principal analyst at 556 Ventures, who digs deeper into the Verizon Wireless results to see what impact they could have on results from rivals as well as looks into the future of unlimited data services.
Make sure to check out next week’s Carrier Wrap show where we will be joined by Roger Entner, founder of Recon Analytics, to discuss Q3 results from AT&T and T-Mobile US.
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