New Verizon CEO Vestberg Stresses 5G, Says Company's Strategy Hasn't Changed
Verizon isn’t changing strategies despite change at the top, CEO Hans Vestberg said at a Goldman Sachs conference Thursday. He said Verizon is winning the race to 5G, also a centerpiece of a show in Los Angeles (see 1809130043). Vestberg took over as CEO from Lowell McAdam Aug. 1.
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Verizon is focusing on its core strategy, “being very disciplined in what we’re doing, seeing growth opportunity where we are allocating more capital, more resources,” Vestberg said. When he started at the company 18 months ago, his “one mission” was focusing on 5G, he said: “This morning you can actually order 5G from Verizon, which we’re extremely proud of.”
Most of the carrier's investments over the past year, from fiber to unified transport, are focused on enabling 5G, Vestberg said. “It’s very clear who is first” on 5G, he said. “We can take orders. There’s no one else in the world who can.”
The company has started to take orders for its fixed-wireless 5G Home service, which launches Oct. 1 in Houston, Indianapolis, Los Angeles and Sacramento. An executive later said the initial reaction has been enthusiastic (see 1809130043). Customers can expect speeds of about 300 Mbps, peaking at 1 Gbps. The “bottleneck,” also the case for 4G, is equipment -- and Verizon will have equipment available, Vestberg said.
Business customers will have to wait a little longer, Vestberg said. “Many of the software features you need … are coming in the next release of 5G software” next year. “As soon as you get the software in the network, the network is 5G-enabled,” Vestberg said. “Do you have devices to use it? I think that’s more the question you should ask.” The first chipsets are expected to be introduced in mid-2019, he said. “I’m an impatient guy. I wouldn’t be happy with that time frame, so we’re pushing it to be much earlier.”
Vestberg said Verizon will be able to launch fifth generation without adding significantly to capital expenditures. It's investing less in macro towers and more on small cells, he said. “A lot of the investment that you need to do for 5G, we’re doing right now,” he said. “We’re building fiber in 50 cities,” inside the capital expenditures “already this year.”
Verizon has the spectrum it needs for 5G, Vestberg said. It launched unlimited plans 18 months ago and saw immediate growth in data use at all times, not just peak hours, he said. That’s good because it means the network is being used more efficiently, he said. “You can buy spectrum,” he said. “You can densify the network” or “you can put new software in the network … things like carrier aggregation.” Verizon always has to look at all three, he said. In the AWS-3 auction, Verizon decided not to bid because it was more efficient to focus on densification, he said: “There is no short-term issue” on spectrum.