Verizon will lease more fiber to densify wireless network

Verizon Communications plans to use a combination of fiber, distributed antenna systems and small cells to densify its wireless network instead of relying solely on spectrum to meet consumers' growing demand for capacity.

CFO Fran Shammo said that while Verizon's spectrum position is strong, the company plans to lease more fiber and buy more hardware like DAS and small cells to meet growing capacity demands rather than buy more spectrum. Shammo noted that the company leases fiber from other companies today and plans to lease more. "We lease a lot of fiber today and there's a lot of competition in the fiber world. We don't own a lot of fiber and we don't need too," he said, noting that there are lots of alternatives for achieving more capacity in the wireless network that don't include buying more spectrum. "We don't need to own and build and control everything," he said. Shammo added that the company is focused on densifying its wireless network first in the top 50 markets, with particular emphasis on the top 10 markets. He noted that the efforts to use hardware to densify the wireless network are already occurring in Chicago, New York and Boston