Verizon Budgets an Extra $149 Million of CapEx Into Florida Market

Verizon announced it is responding to Florida’s exponential and unexpected population increase by allocating an additional $149 million to its local capital spending to meet skyrocketing demands on the network.

From January 2020 to April of this year, more than a quarter of a million of its wireless customers have moved to Florida, and data traffic has spiked, according to the carrier. The company cites that since early 2020, rush-hour traffic in Miami has increased by 364 percent, in Tampa by 135 percent, in Orlando by 408 percent, in West Palm Beach by 165 percent, in Fort Myers by 173 percent, in Collier by 257 percent, and in Glades by 271 percent. 

“We are used to seeing seasonal increases in population in Florida and have always accommodated those temporary fluctuations with temporary network assets to add capacity at various times of the year,” said Kyle Malady, EVP and President, Global Networks and Technology. “With the evolution of the distributed workforce resulting from the pandemic, we’re seeing more people permanently change locations to Florida, and other places. Experiencing the impact of this influx, we revised our forecasting models and are pouring additional capital into the state to grow our coverage and capacity to meet the increased demands.” Continue Reading