Verizon Going 'Back to Basics' in Consumer Business, CFO Says
Verizon is in good shape to “manage through" a tough economy and is returning to basics in its consumer offerings, Chief Financial Officer Matt Ellis said Tuesday at a Morgan Stanley investor conference. “The view on the macro picture has…
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continued to change … depending on the day of the week,” Ellis said: “The consumer is in good shape overall,” he said. “We continue to see payment patterns that are very much in line with what we saw pre-pandemic.” Ellis, who's leaving Verizon in May, cited the appointment last week of Sowmyanarayan Sampath as CEO of Verizon Consumer Group (see 2303030042) in saying there have been times when “we've got distracted by trying to do too many things at once,” Ellis said. “You'll see Sampath getting very much back to the basics of what made Verizon Wireless the biggest and best performing carrier in the U.S.,” and “we feel good about what we saw in the second half of the year,” he said. Verizon’s lower-cost “Welcome Unlimited Plan” has been helpful in driving growth, Ellis said: The plan “gave us the opportunity to advertise at a lower price point, drive foot traffic into the stores. And then we challenge our store teams to say, ‘Hey, if a customer really wants that plan, we'll absolutely sell that plan for them. But let's tell them about all our other plans.’” Verizon’s C-band spectrum has been turned on in 76 of 406 markets, starting with dense, urban areas, he said. “Our customers are liking what they're seeing” in those markets, he said.