Verizon’s management remained guarded on its 5G network expansion plans, telling analysts as part of its second-quarter 2019 financial call that it remained on track to hit coverage in 30 markets by the end of this year. That cautious approach is in stark contrast to its rivals AT&T and T-Mobile US, which can’t seem to talk enough about their plans for “nationwide” coverage by the middle of next year.

Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg said that the carrier has launched its 5G service in nine markets, with four new markets coming on line just this week. He added that a couple of those markets have had their coverage double since the initial launch.

Those launches have included work with the carrier’s three major infrastructure vendors: Ericsson, Nokia, and Samsung. The carrier last month completed a trial with Ericsson of the first container-based evolved packet core (EPC) technology on a live network that it will eventually use to power its 5G core.

It’s also pushing fiber deeper into those deployments to support the backhaul of data traffic and as part of its Intelligent Edge Network initiative. “It's so essential for the whole 5G play that we have to have this fiber,” Vestberg said, according to a Seeking Alpha transcript of the call.

Company CFO Matt Ellis cited the 5G expansion, upgrades as part of Verizon’s Intelligent Edge Network architecture, and fiber deployments as driving an uptick in capex. That spend hit $8 billion through the first six months of the year, with the second half set to see between $9 billion and $10 billion more spent on capex.

Verizon’s 5G fortunes have been mixed. The carrier was the first domestic operator to launch a 5G service. However, that service was powered by a 5G technology created by a Verizon-led tech forum and not the normal standards bodies. Since that launch Verizon has added coverage in only five markets.

AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson last month reiterated that carrier’s plan to have a nationwide 5G footprint by the middle of next year. That push will rely on software updates to its current network assets in order to enable that 5G support.

T-Mobile US has also stated plans for nationwide 5G coverage by next year. As part of gaining regulatory approval of its recent Sprint purchase the carrier has committed to covering 97% of the U.S. population with 5G in three years and 99% in five years.

And in terms of just markets with 5G service, Verizon is currently neck-and-neck with Sprint, which expects to have coverage in nine markets in the coming weeks. That’s probably not the best comparable for a carrier that has built its business on network superiority.

Ellis also noted that Verizon is on the last phase of its Voluntary Separation Program that it offered to 44,000 employees. The carrier announced late last year that more than 10,000 employees accepted the offer, which included up to 60 weeks of salary, bonuses, and benefits depending on the length of employment. More importantly for the carrier is that it saw a $418 million “positive impact” in the first half of the year, and that the program will help it slash $10 billion in operational costs.

“So for the full year, I expect that to be north of $1 billion of impact and that benefit on a year-over-year basis will carry over into the first half of next year until we get to a full run rate by June of next year,” Ellis said. “We're well on-track to more than meet the $10 billion commitment we made and the [voluntary separation program] was a big component of that.”

Overall, Verizon’s operating revenues were flat year over year at around $32 billion for the second quarter. Expenses dipped slightly, though that advantage was basically wiped out by tax changes that dropped quarterly net income 4% year over year to $4.1 billion.