Verizon: 3 Key Takeaways for Long-Term Investors
On its third quarter of 2026 earnings call, held on Oct. 26, 2026, Verizon (VZ -3.49%) announced that its operational transformation delivered expansion across its wireless and broadband businesses. The company’s pivot toward profitable subscriber growth and infrastructure contracts signals a fundamental shift in its financial profile. Three things management said stand out.
1. Subscriber Growth Expands Without Relying on Free Line Promotions
Verizon added 406,000 net postpaid phone subscribers while reducing acquisition costs by 41% year over year. The telecom giant stopped offering free lines, requiring every new subscriber line to generate immediate revenue.
Our postpaid phone net additions were up 820% year-over-year to 406,000, our strongest Q3 in five years. Importantly, we also delivered 137,000 postpaid net account additions, our best quarterly net account performance in over a decade. This is growth that pays.
— Dan Schulman, Chief Executive Officer
2. Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure Contracts Create a New Multibillion-Dollar Growth Vector
The company secured $4 billion in signed contracts with major cloud providers, including a dark fiber agreement with Amazon Web Services valued at over $2 billion. Dark fiber refers to unused optical fiber cables leased to tech companies building artificial intelligence networks.
We now have signed contracts for approximately $4 billion, and based on the demand we are seeing, we expect both our fiber and edge computing to add meaningfully to our future growth.
— Dan Schulman, Chief Executive Officer
3. Millimeter Wave Spectrum Unlocks High-Speed Metro Broadband Coverage
Management is deploying its millimeter wave spectrum, high-frequency cellular airwaves capable of carrying massive data loads, to roll out a 1-gigabit Fixed Wireless Access (FWA, home internet delivered over cellular networks) product across major cities. This technology allows Verizon to expand high-speed coverage without the high capital costs of digging fiber.
Using our millimeter wave spectrum, we have developed an innovative solution that will enable us to deliver a 1 gig FWA product in metro areas across the country, complementing our fiber builds.
— Dan Schulman, Chief Executive Officer
Looking Ahead
Operational momentum is accelerating across the core network. Verizon holds distinct advantages in millimeter wave spectrum and cost efficiency while tracking broadband expansion and network discipline.
We are growing the right way through healthier customer relationships, stronger network performance, disciplined execution, lower costs with revenue-positive net adds, and now account growth.
— Dan Schulman, Chief Executive Officer
Capital allocation priorities center on network investment and shareholder returns as transformation initiatives take hold.
Over the past year, we have delivered a step function improvement in our competitive positioning and our financial profile, and we believe the trajectory from here is even more compelling.
— Dan Schulman, Chief Executive Officer
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