Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

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Hans Vestberg : Thank you. No, good question. I think that as you heard us at least, I mean, we think that the profitable growth is the most important, both to have the right customers retained with us and the ones we’re getting. So that’s an overarching measurement we need to have. Then, of course, it’s always going to be new customers that are important for our base. But remember also, this market right now, if you talk about the premium segment, there are, of course, a certain amount of switchers in the market, and then there are a certain amount of people going from pre to postpaid. That is no infusion of new customers in the system. So they’re coming from two sources. And you need to think about how you do that. And I think we have great opportunities right now with the TracFone brands we have to see and total wireless to see that we are taking care of that pre to post migration, which we’ve not been part of before.

We still have some work with the IT stacks and all of that. But clearly, today, we’re running on both sides. And on the switcher pool, yes, there we’re going to be seeing that we’re prudent and disciplined, but we will go for the units we think are the right. It’s a subscription model long term that is even more important to increase the P sometimes than increasing the Q because this is long term that you stay with the customers to get the long-term value from them. But it’s a balance of it all the time and that we will continue to have.

Operator: The next question comes from Doug Mitchelson of Credit Suisse.

Doug Mitchelson : You talked about amortization being up $1 billion for phone subsidies to catch up with cash spending. Embedded in all your guidance is cash spending at peak levels? Is there a scope for it still to go higher? I know it depends on the competitive environment that it could eventually improve. But are we at peak levels, and it’s just a question of amortization catching up. And I’m curious, when you think about the service revenue guide for wireless, are there any price increases anticipated in that guide? And kind of what level of price increase? I know it’s a sensitive topic, but just curious how we should think about that revenue growth.

Hans Vestberg : Now if we talk about the price increases, I just want to come back to what I said before. I mean we will be surgical and segmented in our approach. There are certain segments we need to be more aggressive on. There might be areas where we see opportunities for price increases. There are no major price increases included at this moment. We need to see where the market is going and also where the cost levels are going. But we will always look at that, but it’s nothing right now that we have in our plans. Matt?

Matthew Ellis : Yes. On the promotion piece, you’ve got the understanding of the accounting treatment versus the cash there, Doug, and certainly, our assumption is that the marketplace will continue to be competitive, but we’re not going to go into the 100% details of what’s in the guide there. But we do assume that we’ll continue to see competitive level in line with the past couple of years. And then as Hans said, we’ll continue to look for ways to put plans in the marketplace to reduce the level of subsidy out there as well, and we’ll continue to push those opportunities.

Operator: The next question comes from Tim Horan of Oppenheimer

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