Verizon Communications Inc at UBS Global Media & Communications Conference Summary

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: John Hodulik - UBS Equities - Analyst : <_ALACRA_META_ABSTRACT>We'll see. So as you sit here in December, you guys recently had an Analyst Day, strong third quarter results. Can you give us a sense for how you guys think of the priorities in the landscape as you look out into 2025?

Question: John Hodulik - UBS Equities - Analyst : A lot of great topics there. We're going to dig deeper on each one of them. But before we start, you talked about the momentum in the business. How would you characterize the Black Friday promotion, Black Friday and the holiday season always a big selling season for the wireless market. How would you characterize competition and what you saw on Black Friday?

Question: John Hodulik - UBS Equities - Analyst : Investors are worried about a potential slowdown in postpaid subscriber growth. It seems to be outsized for the last couple of years. Verizon is going to return to growth in consumer subscribers this year. Can that continue against the backdrop of potential slowdown in sort of overall industry growth? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. DECEMBER 09, 2024 / 2:00PM, VZ.N - Verizon Communications Inc at UBS Global Media & Communications Conference

Question: John Hodulik - UBS Equities - Analyst : One of the things that has helped, I think, from a profitability standpoint and certainly a churn standpoint is the low upgrade rates. And we had a little bit of a, I would say, a bit of a scare at one point midyear when people expected it to spike with the new iPhone.

Question: John Hodulik - UBS Equities - Analyst : Needless so -- I would say, a bunch of people out there. But there's definitely a lot of worries that we heard from investors. It didn't happen. I mean, do you think this low rate can persist into next year And is there -- every iPhone -- are we going to have -- you think we're going to go through another -- worry that we're going to see --

Question: John Hodulik - UBS Equities - Analyst : Another big value driver in the wireless space is ARPU, obviously. And how do you think of ARPU trends, A, given the competitive environment, but B, you talked about the rapid myPlan adoption? How does myPlan in general sort of drive ARPU?

Question: John Hodulik - UBS Equities - Analyst : Sure. Along with one of the drivers of the ARPU growth has been pricing. It seems like the industry in general --

Question: John Hodulik - UBS Equities - Analyst : Exactly on the consumer side, moving prices up. I mean how do you think of the pricing power of, maybe Verizon, and the wireless industry in general on the consumer side as we look into '25?

Question: John Hodulik - UBS Equities - Analyst : Got you. Let's talk about competition from cable. For Verizon sort of pluses and minuses, I would say, I mean --

Question: John Hodulik - UBS Equities - Analyst : That's a good question. So I guess, as it relates to that. Do you believe that you're losing share on a retail basis to your cable partners? And I guess, in your mind, is that offset by the -- what I would characterize as very strong wholesale -- high-margin wholesale growth on the wholesale side.

Question: John Hodulik - UBS Equities - Analyst : Got you. Okay. Maybe we can shift to the broadband strategy, really in two parts. First, we'll talk about fixed wireless, then we'll move on to the Frontier deal and your fiber strategy. First with fixed wireless, it's been a fantastic growth driver for you. And given your new guidance, it looks like it's going to continue to be. How should we think of the competitiveness of fixed wireless as we look out over the next several years in terms of the speeds you guys can provide and that the overall sort of data transfer that residential customers are using?

Question: John Hodulik - UBS Equities - Analyst : Yeah. I spent some time with Joe at your Analyst Day and he could not be more bullish on that.

Question: John Hodulik - UBS Equities - Analyst : Okay. Moving on to fiber. With the Frontier shareholder vote behind you, how would you --

Question: John Hodulik - UBS Equities - Analyst : Thank goodness, Yeah. And you guys, I think, came out very well. How would you describe the benefits of having a much larger fiber footprint at Verizon?

Question: John Hodulik - UBS Equities - Analyst : That's great. Yes. Speaking of revenue synergies. Do you expect to have a stronger wireless business where you have the fiber footprint? Maybe talk a little bit about what -- and this gets to the whole --

Question: John Hodulik - UBS Equities - Analyst : Switching to the business market. You talked about 50% market share in the business market.

Question: John Hodulik - UBS Equities - Analyst : Right. Yeah. I mean how would you characterize competition in the business?

Question: John Hodulik - UBS Equities - Analyst : Maybe quickly on the network. You mentioned the C-band. When will the C-band be completely deployed? And will differentiate the Verizon user experience for subscribing?

Question: John Hodulik - UBS Equities - Analyst : So given the C-band buildout, and you talked about 5G advanced, you have this rapid growth in -- you're growing subscribers, usage of the subscribers are growing and now rapid growth in fixed wireless. Do you need to move sort of beyond that to create capacity to support that fixed wireless business, beyond the C-band, beyond the 5G?

Question: John Hodulik - UBS Equities - Analyst : You guys obviously sort of popped up and even more so from a spectrum standpoint with the C-band auction. How long do you need more spectrum? Or do you think just given what you're seeing from a traffic growth standpoint, especially with fixed wireless?

Question: John Hodulik - UBS Equities - Analyst : So it's years away?

Question: John Hodulik - UBS Equities - Analyst : Okay. So bringing it all together, the fixed wireless fiber, what you guys are doing in the business market, return to growth on the consumer side. Can service revenue growth accelerate putting it all together?

Question: John Hodulik - UBS Equities - Analyst : And maybe on the cost side, maybe talk a little bit about some of the cost savings initiatives? And then is there an opportunity to save on the legacy network side of cost? AT&T talks a little bit about decommissioning their copper, I think they've got a lot more copper than you guys do.

Question: John Hodulik - UBS Equities - Analyst : What about in general cost savings opportunities?

Question: John Hodulik - UBS Equities - Analyst : Lastly, CapEx and free cash flow. You guys laid out your view of the sort of CapEx spending over the next couple of years.

Question: John Hodulik - UBS Equities - Analyst : Yeah, well '25, Batya has got it for the next few years. How should we think of that, though? You're obviously investing in broadband a lot and increasing the wireless network and now the fiber network. I'm just -- how should we expect it to -- how should we think of CapEx trends over the next several years?

Question: John Hodulik - UBS Equities - Analyst : And finishing up, I guess, it sounds like once you close the Frontier deal, you're going to come back to us with a sort of new outline that talks about investment and growth of the company. What should we expect?

Question: John Hodulik - UBS Equities - Analyst : Got it. Well, Hans, thanks for being here, really appreciate the time.