Verizon sees a strong uptake in premium plan subscribers

Around 27 percent of Verizon’s consumer base is on premium unlimited plans, and with strong uptake in the second quarter there is a lot of room to continue moving customers into higher-priced tiers and growing revenue per account. CFO Matt Ellis said more than 60 percent of new accounts in Q2 opted for premium unlimited plans. Verizon laid out plans in March 2021 for consistent increases in wireless ARPA, alongside related growth in service revenues. At the end of June, Verizon had 121.3 million total wireless retail connections, including prepaid and business customers. Currently, roughly 69 percent of Verizon’s customer base is on some form of unlimited plan, with the remaining still on metered data plans. With slightly over a quarter of subscribers on premium unlimited plans, Ellis said “we think there’s significant opportunity…to move that 27% up fairly significantly over the course of the next 2-3 years.” Customers have to pay for the higher-tier premium plans in order to access Verizon’s 5G Ultra Wideband service, he noted, which consists of millimeter-wave as well C-band once the latter is deployed starting later in 2021.