Verizon Wireless Consumers Leave Despite Dangling Cheaper Unlimited Plan – CNET [CNET]

The telecommunications company came off a rough first quarter with no revenue growth as it expands C-band 5G service.

Verizon said it lost wireless consumers and saw revenue growth inch up in the second quarter as inflation and a challenging economic environment hit the carrier hard.

Verizon lost 215,000 consumer postpaid phone subscriptions, the metric used by the industry as a key indicator of success because it includes customers who pay at the end of the month and generally boast higher credit scores. This was buoyed by the addition of 227,000 postpaid business wireless subscriptions for an overall net gain of 12,000 subscribers, which falls below competitor performance: on Thursday, AT&T said it had added 813,000 net postpaid subscribers in its second quarter earnings.

Verizon has been trying to attract more customers with a cheaper bottom-tier Unlimited plan to compete with T-Mobile’s most affordable subscription option. 

But the company also had a rough first quarter, with an overall decrease in postpaid consumer subscriptions. Back then, Verizon also faced questions about inflation, which has led to rising phone bills.

Verizon posted $33.8 billion in revenue in the second quarter, up a very slight 0.1% from the same period last year and just a hair above analyst expectations. 

The carrier reported net income of $5.3 billion, or $1.24 earnings per share. Its adjusted earnings were $1.31 per share, which was under expectations of $1.33 per share on Yahoo. 

Verizon shares had fallen 3% to $47.66 yesterday after AT&T released its second quarter earnings.