Verizon lifts annual forecasts, signs more than $2 billion AI infrastructure deal with AWS

Oct 26 (Reuters) - Verizon raised its annual forecast for wireless subscriber additions on Monday, betting on strong demand for its simplified plans, and signed an AI infrastructure deal worth more than $2 billion with Amazon Web Services. 

For the third quarter, the telecom carrier reported nearly double the analysts’ estimate for monthly-bill paying wireless subscriber gains at 406,000, against Visible Alpha expectations of 209,439.

Shares of the New York-based company rose 2.4% in premarket trading.

• Verizon now expects to add between 1.1 million and 1.2 million postpaid phone subscribers this year compared with earlier projections of 750,000 to 1 million

• It also raised its full-year adjusted earnings per share forecast to $5.04 to $5.06, from $4.99 to $5.04 earlier

• However, third-quarter revenue of $34.3 billion fell short of analyst estimates of $34.74 billion, according to LSEG data

• Revenue was pressured by lower device upgrade volumes as customers held on to their phones longer after Verizon began cutting device subsidies

• A year into CEO Dan Schulman’s tenure, Verizon has pursued a broad overhaul of its business, restructuring operations and simplifying its wireless offerings

• It launched its Simplicity plan in June, introducing transparent pricing and unlimited data

• Under its deal with Amazon’s cloud unit, Verizon will provide high-capacity fiber-optic connectivity for AWS data centers, enabling faster, more reliable data transfers to support growing AI computing workloads

• Verizon in July announced a more than $1 billion agreement with Google to connect data centers using dark fiber, highlighting how rising AI demand could open a new revenue stream beyond traditional wireless and broadband services for telecom operators