Growth for Verizon's nascent fixed wireless access business continues to accelerate, with the wireless company reporting its biggest quarterly FWA customer expansion yet.
Verizon added 379,000 FWA customers in the fourth quarter, culminating a second full year in the market for Verizon Home Internet during which the new service grew by nearly 1.2 million subscribers.
Across business and consumer ranks, Verizon now has 1.452 million fixed wireless access customers and is beginning to close the gap on FWA market leader T-Mobile, which ended Q3 with over 2 million FWA customers. T-Mobile reports Q4 earnings next week (Feb. 1).
More notably, the expansion of inexpensive wireless services that bring 5G internet into the home has undercut cable, which has suddenly stopped growing wireline internet customers. Verizon is selling its Home Internet for as little as $25 a month.
"FWA remains Verizon’s most promising growth area. Indeed, it remains the most tangible revenue stream from 5G," equity analyst Craig Moffett wrote in an investor note Tuesday morning.
For its part, Verizon hasn't abandoned its wireline broadband position, either, reporting 59,000 Fios Internet additions in the fourth quarter. Fios Internet has more than 7.5 million customers in the U.S.
“Total broadband net additions of 416,000 was the best total broadband performance in over a decade, reflecting a strong demand for FiOS and fixed wireless products,” Verizon said in a statement.
Verizon also reported a 3.5% year-over-year increase in revenue to $35.3 billion.
Post paid net additions in Verizon's consumer wireless sector were strong, too. (You can read all about that in Verizon's Q4 earnings release.) But with Verizon tempering its growth outlook for the near term future, the company's stock remained largely flat in Tuesday trading.
One aspect of the business the company does seem to be walking away from: Linear pay TV.
Fios TV lost another 80,000 customers in Q4, with the base dwindling to just over 3.3 million. Verizon has now slipped to rank as only the eighth largest distributor of linear pay TV services in America. Verizon lost 69,000 Fios TV customers in the fourth quarter of 2021.
Verizon is now focused on offering third-party video services to its wireless connectivity customers via +play, its wholesale Amazon Channels-like service.
