Verizon: 40% annual reduction in cost per bit (Update 2022)
In 2018 & 2019, top execs at both Verizon and AT&T told me they were cutting costs by ~40%/year. Four years later, I can firm that the cost improvements are continuing. Massive MIMO is incredibly productive. Meanwhile, traffic growth is down to 15-30%. Result: cost per customer/month is falling in the 5G era. Margaret Vestiger at the EU and DT CEO say the opposite in order to justify demanding money from the Internet giants. This is not true. Dave, December 2022
Lee Hicks, Verizon Vice President - Network Planning, reiterated that Verizon has been reducing cost per bit by about 40% per year and expected to continue to do so. That corresponds to then-CEO Lowell McAdam's comment that mmWave would bring down the cost per bit by 9/10ths. Verizon's profit and loss confirms this general trend: costs and profits haven't changed much while traffic growth remains high. That would be impossible without a large increase in efficiency.