New York, April 27, 2026, 10:02 (EDT)
Verizon Communications popped roughly 3% Monday morning after the company posted an unexpected increase in monthly wireless subscribers and bumped its 2026 adjusted earnings outlook. For CEO Dan Schulman, it’s a notable early win in his first full quarter at the helm.
Wall Street zeroed in on subscriber growth. Verizon delivered 55,000 new postpaid phone customers—these are the monthly billed accounts that drive profits for wireless players. Analysts polled by Visible Alpha had actually forecast a drop of 81,809.
Verizon is looking to turn things around in its wireless segment, which has faced plenty of heat from AT&T and T-Mobile for years. Lately, it’s rolled out switcher promos—some targeting customers who show bills from competitors—and ramped up bundles combining mobile with high-speed internet.
Verizon reported its first positive first-quarter postpaid phone net adds in over a decade, notching a year-on-year increase of more than 340,000. Total operating revenue climbed 2.9% to $34.4 billion. Net income came in at $5.1 billion, up 3.3%. Adjusted earnings per share rose 7.6% to $1.28.
The company bumped up its 2026 adjusted EPS forecast to a range of $4.95 to $4.99, marking growth of 5% to 6%. Retail postpaid phone net adds are now expected to come in at the higher end of the 750,000 to 1 million projection. The outlook for full-year mobility and broadband service revenue growth stays unchanged at 2% to 3%.
“Our turnaround is not only progressing, it is gaining momentum,” Schulman said in Verizon’s release. The company, he added, is moving to “reclaim our market leadership” by reducing customer friction and shoring up retention. Verizon
Verizon is leaning harder into steady service revenue, dialing back on lower-margin promos, CEO Schulman told analysts on the earnings call. Churn ticked down over the quarter—consumer postpaid phone churn landed at 0.90%.
Broadband was another bright spot. Verizon tacked on 341,000 broadband subscribers this quarter: 214,000 from fixed wireless access—home internet that runs on its wireless network—and 127,000 from fiber. The company closed the period with roughly 16.8 million broadband customers.
Verizon said the Frontier Communications deal officially hit the books after closing Jan. 20. With the acquisition, Verizon aims to bulk up its fiber footprint and ramp up bundled mobile and home internet packages—a space where AT&T has been busy, too.
Still, the quarter had its blemishes. Revenue came in below Wall Street’s expectations, and Verizon disclosed that wireless service revenue growth took a hit—about 80 basis points shaved off—because of customer credits awarded after the January outage. According to Reuters, the company handed out $20 credits to hundreds of thousands of affected customers.
Debt’s moving higher on the radar. Verizon’s net unsecured debt ended the quarter at $130.1 billion—up from $110.1 billion at the close of Q4. The company noted it has knocked out about half of Frontier’s debt since wrapping up the acquisition, and still targets repaying nearly all of it before year-end.
Verizon’s $5 billion cost-cutting push is “off to a great start,” CFO Tony Skiadas told analysts, pointing to lower spending on network operations, advertising, and staffing. But the real challenge for Verizon: holding onto subscribers without kicking off another round of aggressive handset giveaways. “Not every retention is going to be a free handset,” Schulman said to Goldman Sachs analyst Michael Ng. Investing.com
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