D.C. Memo: FWA Keeps Delivering for Verizon
◾ Comcast Lost 120,000 Broadband Subs in 2Q ◾ DIRECTV Fears 'Bundled Services' ETF Exemption ◾ NCTA Floats Axon 'Compromise' ◾ Review: Starlink on Hawaiian Airlines
Verizon: Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) keeps delivering for Verizon. The company reported Monday that it added 378,000 FWA customers in the second quarter, up from 354,000 in the previous quarter. The company now has 3.8 million FWA subs, an increase of about 69% year over year. Fixed wireless revenue for the second quarter was $514 million, up more than $200 million year over year. Verizon said it added 24,000 FiOS Internet customers in the second quarter, compared to 53,000 in the first quarter. The company said it lost 624,000 prepaid wireless customers, including 410,000 that had been enrolled in the FCC's Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP). Verizon CFO and EVP Tony Skiadas said the end of the ACP on May 31 put a dent into the company's FiOS numbers. “We saw some pressure on FiOS, in terms of gross add opportunity,” he said. “If we look ahead, in the third quarter we expect some disconnects in prepaid and a small number across other products.” MoffettNathanson Senior Managing Director Craig Moffett said in a client report yesterday that although Verizon’s Consumer FWA net additions “weren’t bad” in the quarter, he thought the company’s FWA consumer segment needed to improve. "Their 218K residential FWA net adds in the quarter were once again stubbornly low, and while up sequentially they were still well below the levels of a year ago," Moffett said. KeyBank analyst Brandon Nispel said Verizon's FWA results showed "continued momentum for its broadband business that is far outpacing that of AT&T. With Verizon now achieving 3.82 million FWA subs, versus its 2025 guidance of 4 million to 5 million, we expect Verizon to raise its targets later this year."
ETFs: A cable industry proposal to exempt “bundled services” – meaning pay-TV and broadband Internet packages – from an FCC-imposed ban on early termination fees isn’t working for cable TV rival DIRECTV. “Most consumers who receive cable television service also receive broadband service bundled with their television service. Thus, refraining from applying ETF restrictions to bundled services means largely refraining from applying these rules to cable and telco video services at all. This would leave only satellite carriers subject to such restrictions,” DIRECTV said in FCC meetings last week with aides to four FCC Commissioners, including FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel. DIRECTV said a bundled services exemption that favored its traditional video rivals would be “arbitrary and capricious” and “would harm consumers and competition.” Rosenworcel’s proposed ETF ban would also exempt YouTube TV and Hulu + Live TV.