Verizon plans Capex of $21.5 bn in 2022 focusing on 5G

Verizon Communications today said its capital spending, excluding C-Band, will be in the range of $16.5 billion to $17.5 billion in 2022, a decrease from $18.2 billion in 2021, as the company has started its progress towards lower capital intensity.
Additional expenditures related to the deployment of the company’s C-Band 5G network are expected to be in the range of $5 billion to $6 billion as the company continues to build out the initial markets and begins preparations for deploying Phase 2 spectrum.

Verizon revealed that the full-year 2021 capital expenditures were $20.3 billion. Capital expenditures support the growth in traffic on the company’s 4G LTE network as the company initiates the first phase of C-Band deployment covering more than 95 million people in the U.S. Capital expenditures related to C-Band were approximately $2.1 billion in 2021.

Verizon said organic service and other revenue growth will be around 3 percent in 2022. On a reported basis, which includes the net impact of the sale of Verizon Media and the company’s ownership of TracFone, service and other revenue growth is expected to be in a range of 1.0 percent and 1.5 percent.

Reported wireless service revenue growth will be in the range of 9 percent to 10 percent. Excluding the impact of the TracFone acquisition, wireless service revenue is expected to grow at least 3 percent, the telecom operator said.

Verizon is expecting adjusted EBITDA growth in the range of 2 percent to 3 percent in 2022.