Verizon (NYSE:VZ), the largest US wireless carrier by number of subscribers, reported net income of $4.8 billion for the second quarter of 2023, down 10.3% from the same period a year earlier. Revenue fell 3.5% year-on-year to $32.6 billion.
The drop in profit reflects a pre-tax loss on special items of $598 million, including severance charges, amortization of assets related to TracFone and asset rationalization charges related to the use of non-core assets that the company decided to discontinue.
Already the decline in sales reflects lower revenue from wireless equipment and lower postpaid cell phone upgrade activity, with people taking longer to upgrade their older smartphones, says the company.
Total wireless services revenue increased 3.8% to $19.1 billion, driven by price increases, reclassification of some revenues and an increasing contribution from wireless internet.
Verizon reported net adds of 8,000 postpaid phones for the quarter. The commercial sector reported 144k net additions of postpaid phones in the quarter, and the consumer segment lost 136k connections.
“The steps we’ve taken to improve our operating performance are working and we’re confident we’ll meet our full-year financial targets,” according to CEO Hans Vestberg.