Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) Analysis


Verizon is the largest wireless service provider in the United States. The company’s 4G LTE network is available to more than 98% of the country’s population.

Wireless operations, which include voice and data services and equipment sales, generate approximately 73% of Verizon’s revenue and account for over 86% of the company’s EBITDA (earnings before interest, depreciation, and amortization).

Wireline operations account for about 27% of the company’s revenue but only generate 14% of Verizon’s EBITDA. This segment includes traditional voice offerings, as well as broadband video and internet services. The company has sold off many of its wireline assets in recent years to reduce its exposure to slower-growing, capital intensive areas of the sector.

Overall, Verizon maintains more than 115 million wireless retail connections, 5.8 million Fios internet subscribers, and 4.6 million Fios video subscribers.

Verizon’s business is (slowly) expanding into newer areas such as digital media, telematics, and the Internet of Things, but the company’s historical key to success has been delivering reliable wireless and wireline services over the best communications network in the country.

Verizon routinely invests more than $16 billion annually to increase the capacity and reliability of its wireless network. Thanks to its massive investments in capital equipment and spectrum licenses, Verizon’s 4G LTE network covers more than 314 million people today.

The company’s investments have also kept it at the top of Root Metrics’ rankings of wireless reliability, speed, and network performance for each of the last five years. The chart below shows overall performance metrics for the big four carriers:



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