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Verizon will accelerate 5G rollout during COVID-19 pandemic: CEO Hans Vestberg

Brian Sozzi
·Executive Editor
Updated ·2-min read

Verizon Chairman and CEO Hans Vestberg — the architect of the telecom giant’s 5G strategy — isn’t letting the COVID-19 pandemic slow down the company’s important broadband rollout.

In fact, the current situation in the country — which has made access to high-speed internet essential if not life-saving for households and businesses — has Verizon poised to accelerate its 5G deployment into 2021.

“First of all, I’m really excited about the back half of this year. Our team has done terrific work. They are actually on plan or ahead of plan of the biggest commitment we’ve ever done on deploying technology,” Vestberg told Yahoo Finance’s The First Trade after second quarter earnings were released on Friday. “So this year, we’re going to do 60 cities on 5G mobility. That’s five times more than we did in 2019. We’re going to do nationwide 5G. All that is on plan for us. And the second half is going to be exciting.”

Vestberg added, “We are building a 5G that is so transformative. We’re not building an incremental 4G to 5G. Not only that, of course, we are building the 5G home solution and mobile edge computing on the same network which is a totally different way of how you rethink the usage.”

  • Operating Revenue: $30.4 billion versus estimates for $29.95 billion

  • Adjusted Diluted EPS: $1.18 a share versus estimates for $1.15 a share

  • Adjusted EPS Guidance: reaffirmed outlook for earnings per share of down 2% to up 2%

Verizon shares rose as much as 1% on the session by early afternoon.

In 2019, Verizon launched 5G in about 30 markets. This year, it has earmarked $17 billion to $18 billion in capital expenditure, in large part devoted to laying down 5G technology. So far, Verizon — the parent company of Yahoo Finance — offers 5G in parts of 35 cities across the United States.

Brian Sozzi is an editor-at-large and co-anchor of The First Trade at Yahoo Finance. Follow Sozzi on Twitter @BrianSozzi and on LinkedIn.

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