Yesterday, Verizon Wireless announced its 4th quarter earnings for 2023.
Some highlights:
Postpaid: phone gross additions in the fourth quarter of 2023 increased 16.9% year over year, the best performance in four years.
Prepaid: The prepaid group is still not doing well and continues to lose customers. Verizon reported 289,000 wireless retail prepaid net losses in Q4 2023.
“The TracFone acquisition has been, to be blunt, a disaster,” wrote MoffettNathanson analyst Craig Moffett in a report for investors today.
Verizon acquired TracFone in 2021 and has been losing customers ever since. A couple bright spots in that division are Visible and Total by Verizon, which have been singled out as among the most promising of the many prepaid brands now at Verizon.
No fan of VZW or TF and by all reports TF CS has deteriorated further since the acquisition (how low can you go?) but to be fair TF often was bleeding customers at ~ the same rate many quarters before the sale.
Amazing to watch a disaster turn into an even bigger disaster under VZW fumbling.
ETA-
Well AT&T reported 132,000 prepaid net losses, prepaid churn 2.97%.
VZW reported 289,000 prepaid net losses, prepaid churn 4.55%.
ETA to complete the trio-
T-Mobile reported Q4, 53,000 prepaid net customer additions, prepaid churn 2.86%.