Verizon Not Concerned About Potential Recession
Verizon isn’t sweating a potential downturn in the economy, Sowmyanarayan Sampath, executive vice president and CEO of Verizon Consumer Group, said Thursday during a MoffettNathanson conference. “We are really resilient, and we are ready for any type of economy,” he said. Sampath called it “a little premature” to discuss tariffs on smartphones. “We'll have to wait and see" what the real tariff is.
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A slowdown in immigration in the U.S. as a result of Trump administration policies will likely affect Verizon on two fronts, Sampath said: the “lower end” of its prepaid offerings and a slowdown in the conversion of prepaid to postpaid customers. “There could be some contraction” as a result of the immigration crackdown, “but we haven't seen it,” he said: “In fact, we've had the best prepaid results the last three quarters despite how immigration looks.”
Sampath also said Verizon is on track to hit 8 million to 9 million fixed wireless access subscribers. “We are well along our way,” but “we’ll never jeopardize our mobility network." Verizon hasn’t budgeted to expand FWA, he said. That service is being offered “purely using … excess capacity that we have in the network.”