Verizon posted rather pedestrian fourth quarter results that wavered a bit on meeting expectations but did report that it will maintain its current investment focus tied to expanding the reach of its 5G network and virtualization efforts through 2020.

For the fourth quarter of 2019, Verizon’s revenues increased 1.4% year over year to $34.8 billion, which was slightly ahead of estimates. Full-year revenues increased just under 1% to $131.9 billion. Net income showed a more robust increase, buoyed by a significant charge it took in 2018 tied to its wallowing “media” investments.

The carrier also said it has achieved $5.7 billion in cash savings tied to its previously announced plans to hit $10 billion in cost savings by 2021. The carrier last year managed to add $1.3 billion in savings to that plan through its Voluntary Separation Program it offered to approximately 44,000 employees.

For the full year of 2019, Verizon spent $17.9 billion on capex. That investment was targeted at its 5G build, densifying its 4G LTE network, expanding the reach of its fiber assets, and upgrading to its Intelligent Edge Network architecture. The carrier plans to spend roughly the same amount on capex in 2020, focused on the same initiatives.

"Since we launched the Verizon Intelligent Edge Network we have constantly found a lot of efficiency in our capex build and that of course is giving us possibilities to continue to do more and more, " Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg told investors during the company's earnings call, according to a Seeking Alpha transcript.

Verizon did not provide any specific milestone updates for the expansion of its 5G network. It ended last year with its 5G service available in parts of 31 markets, and has since added service in three new markets, including Little Rock, Arkansas; Kansas City, Missouri; and Cincinnati.

Rival AT&T said during its quarterly results conference call that it expects to expand its 5G coverage from around 50 million people today to “nationwide” by mid-year. That expansion will use the carrier’s lower-band spectrum assets that, while providing broader coverage from each base station deployed, will likely not provide the sort of gigabit speeds customers expect from 5G services.

Smaller rival T-Mobile US has already launched its “nationwide” 5G network covering around 200 million people using its low-band spectrum assets.

Verizon’s 5G efforts have also included the recent launch of another specifications body focused on accelerating “the delivery of 5G and mobile edge computing” on a global basis. Forum partners include América Móvil, KT, Rogers, Telstra, and Vodafone.

Vestberg noted during Q4 that the carrier’s move to virtualize its various networks under a common, unified framework was 60% complete.

“We built a virtualized intelligent edge network, which is basically we took four different networks and we made one” with a unified transport and single network core, Vestberg said during an analyst conference. “A lot of that has been plumbed all the way from the data center to the access point. We want to have commonality of all the equipment and how we deal with it. We are 60% through that, and that’s why we see so much efficiency in our capex.”

The carrier during the quarter also announced a deal with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to marry its 5G network with the cloud provider’s Wavelength edge compute platform. The deal calls for the Wavelength service to be ported on Verizon’s data centers, thereby creating a Verizon Edge offering that Vestberg said can deliver compute with latencies down to 20 milliseconds.

The partnership is somewhat similar to ongoing work between their respective rivals AT&T and Microsoft that ties together Microsoft’s Azure cloud and AT&T’s network edge locations. The combo will allow AT&T’s software-defined and virtualized 5G core that make up its Network Cloud platform to support Azure services closer to customers. The two companies had previously stated that NEC testing showed a 40% to 50% network performance improvement compared to testing in the public cloud, and speed tests showed 24 to 40 milliseconds of latency.

AT&T said its virtualization efforts are allowing the carrier to cut $1.5 billion in labor-related costs in 2020.