Watches, Not Phones, Fuel Verizon's Subscriber Growth - Bloomberg

Telecom transition time

"Smartwatches, meanwhile, have helped bring another source of revenue to the industry -- even if the devices aren’t as lucrative as phones. The latest wearable devices, such as the Apple Watch Series 3, have their own network connections. That means they don’t need to link up with smartphones to communicate and -- good news for carriers -- require a separate wireless subscription.

Verizon added about 359,000 subscribers last quarter who are using watches, wearables and other devices. That helped make up for the loss of 24,000 phone customers and 75,000 tablet customers in the period. But watch customers pay $10 a month, compared with the $40 or more that phone customers typically shell out.

That effect was evident in Verizon’s wireless service revenue, which fell 2.4 percent last quarter."

Watches, Not Phones, Fuel Verizon's Subscriber Growth - Bloomberg