Competitive Clouds on the Verizon

The US wireless market is still being good to Verizon Communications. Verizon reported a 40% rise in third-quarter earnings, helped by solid net additions of wireless subscribers. The report comes after it said it would double down on the US by buying the remainder of Verizon Wireless from Vodafone for $130 billion. Verizon's impressive performance suggests that was a smart move, at least for now. Its 927,000 net postpaid wireless additions, of which 481,000 were more lucrative phone customers, show it hasn't run out of steam, despite mounting competition from a reinvigorated T-Mobile US. T-Mobile's recent comments suggest it, too, should post strong subscriber growth when it reports Nov. 5.

But it is still early innings for US wireless competition. UBS estimates Sprint, which is investing in its network, will post a net loss of 600,000 postpaid customers. AT&T, whose network lacks the reputation of Verizon's, may continue to bear the brunt of T-Mobile's promotional efforts. While AT&T is likely to post a net gain in subscribers when including all connected devices, it may end up losing phone customers. Even Verizon isn't immune to the more challenging environment.