5G/C-Band growth shifts to customer satisfaction, revenue

“We already have changed our strategy in ’23, so the deployment of our C-band [midband spectrum] is based on customer satisfaction
and on revenue generation,” Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg said Monday at an investor event. “Even though we’re going to cover almost
all the population [with C-band], that is not the main driver and the priority right now.”

“Right now our deployment is much more about getting it to where we need better customer satisfaction. It might be densification,
or people have moved to a certain area, or how do we create even quicker revenue from our investment,” Vestberg said.

Vestberg added that, in markets where Verizon offers C-band connections, the operator sees a greater portion of customers selecting its
more expensive service plans than in markets where it doesn’t offer C-band. He said Verizon also generates more gross customer additions
in such markets and counts fewer customer defections.

T-Mobile officials recently disclosed a similar 5G network buildout strategy. T-Mobile’s networking chief Ulf Ewaldsson said in October
the operator now uses AI technology and billions of data points to determine exactly how and where to upgrade and expand its network.
Company representatives call the effort “customer-driven coverage.”

Wireless network operators like Verizon have rushed to deploy 5G in midband spectrum like the C-band because transmissions in such
spectrum can dramatically increase users’ speeds while at the same time covering wide geographic areas.

For the entire article by Mike Dano, Light Reading, see:

https://www.lightreading.com/5g/verizon-shifts-5g-buildout-from-coverage-to-satisfaction-revenue