Verizon posted third-quarter 2020 financial results that showed a decrease in COVID-19-related headwinds and more importantly improved expectations for the rest of the year.

The carrier, which earlier this month joined the “nationwide” 5G club, reported a 5-cent-per-share hit on earnings tied to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic for the latest quarter. That was a significant improvement from the 14-cent-per-share impact it reported in Q2.

Verizon management explained that the continued breeze is mostly being caused by the lack of travel with the carrier’s various roaming and data travel plans still seeing only a fraction of the revenue in pre-COVID times.

Overall, Verizon’s operating revenues dropped 4.1% year over year to $31.5 billion for the quarter. Net income dropped a more substantial 15.6% to $4.5 billion. Those numbers are, however, were better than the declines the company posted in Q2.

Despite the ongoing challenges and uncertainty tied to the COVID-19 pandemic, Verizon did increase its fiscal outlook for the full year. It now expects 2020 earnings per share to come in either flat or increase 2% compared with 2019 results. This is a tightening from its previous forecast range of between a drop and a gain of 2% for the full year.

Verizon’s management explained during a conference call that the upgrade was based on continued momentum coming out of Q3, which built on what it saw coming out of Verizon's more heavily COVID-19-impacted Q2. They also pointed to an expected bump in revenues tied to the recent Apple 5G iPhone launch that included the carrier also unveiling its nationwide 5G reach.

Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg explained that the carrier deployed more radio base stations over the past 2 months than it did for all of 2019. Verizon has so far spent $14.2 billion on capex for the year, with the carrier tying that spend to its 5G network and its Intelligent Edge Network architecture.

Verizon bolstered those edge plans earlier this week through a deal with Microsoft that will allow enterprises to deploy mobile edge computing (MEC) services riding on Azure. The carrier also has a deal with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to run 5G edge services in AWS’ Wavelength edge compute service. Verizon management also said that it expects to spend toward the high-end of its full-year capex guidance, which would be near $18.5 billion.

Verizon’s approach to 5G has been questioned since the outset. Its initial focus on using a proprietary technology for a limited at-home launch was seen as a desperate move to gain a perceived first-mover advantage.

That was eventually followed by a millimeter-wave (mmWave)-based deployment late last year that was shredded for its lack of reach. That became a bigger issue when T-Mobile US was the first to market a nationwide 5G footprint, though the performance of that network was barely different from its 4G LTE network due to spectrum constraints.

“Verizon’s over-reliance on millimeter-wave spectrum has left them vulnerable,” noted analyst firm MoffettNathanson in a report. “We, and others, are skipping over the next step, which is acquiring and then (arduously) deploying upper mid-band spectrum. That will take time. And it will take lots of money.”

Verizon was the last of the nationwide operators to proclaim a nationwide 5G footprint, which the small print that follows all of these claims is covering around 200 million people, or around 60% of the U.S. population. Verizon earlier this year did increase its capex plans by $500 million tied to what it expected to be an increase in network usage due to the COVID-19 pandemic.