America Online 2015 Annual Report Download - page 6

In periods of rapid change, the most
important question a corporate leader
can ask is, are we the company we
need to be for the future?
We have asked ourselves that ques-
tion many times throughout Verizon’s
history, and we’ve responded with
forward- looking actions that have
kept us at the forefront of our indus-
try. Anticipating the mobile revolution,
we built the nation’s best wireless
network. Recognizing that fiber would
overtake copper, we led the transition
to broadband. Seeing that video was
going mobile, we invested in wireless
capacity and added to our skill set in
digital video. At each inflection point,
we’ve demonstrated our ability to
use periods of industry disruption to
create new sources of growth, while
still delivering on the fundamentals on
which Verizon is built. The result has
been a remarkably durable record of
growth and profitability in a rapidly
transforming industry.
In 2015, the pace of change in com-
munications accelerated, driven by
fundamental shifts in technology,
industry structure and demographics.
Once again, we face hard questions
about how to transform our company
to compete and grow in this new
environment and, once again, we’ve
stepped up to the challenge of posi-
tioning Verizon to be an innovator in
the digital-first mobile future while
delivering another year of strong
operating and financial performance.
Let me share the highlights of this
transformational year.
Delivering innovation
Our strategy for continued growth
andprofitability is straightforward:
deliver great wireless and wireline
services over our superior networks,
develop new business models in plat-
forms such as video and the Internet
of Things, and create incremental rev-
enue opportunities in applications and
content. We delivered on all elements
of this three- tiered strategy in 2015.
The U.S. communications market-
placecontinues to show its strength
ina changing environment, as we
see in both our wireless and wireline
businesses. Mobile and broadband
usage is growing, driven by demand
for data and video. Verizon’s base
of high- quality customers also con-
tinues to grow. We ended 2015 with
112.1million retail wireless connections,
7million Fios Internet subscribers
and5.8million Fios Video subscribers,
with strong demand for smartphones,
tablets and our high-speed Fios
Quantum service. This steady demand
for mobile and consumer broad-
band fueled our revenue growth in
2015. Total operating revenues were
$131.6billion, an increase of 3.6per-
cent over 2014.
Most important, as video, musicand
commerce all migrate to mobile
anddigital platforms, our services are
more embedded in customers’ lives
than ever before. Therefore, Job #1
for Verizon is reinforcing the network
superiority that is the defining char-
acteristic of our brand. In 2015, we
invested approximately $28billion
in capital and spectrum licenses to
increase the future capacity of our
wireless network, fill out our all-fiber
network in the Boston-to- Washington
corridor and enhance our global
Internet backbone.
Our leadership in 4G LTE wireless
technology has enabled us to keep
Dear Shareowner,
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2015 Annual Report www.verizon.com/2015AnnualReport
Chairman’s letter