Verizon Communications has struggled with revenue growth over the past three years, reporting a compound annual growth rate below 1% in its core wireless segment. In December, the company appointed Dan Schulman, former PayPal CEO, to succeed Hans Vestberg. Schulman’s mandate includes diversifying beyond traditional wireless services and accelerating expansion in 5G enterprise solutions. During Vestberg’s tenure, capital expenditures exceeded $40 billion as Verizon built out its nationwide 5G network, but average revenue per user (ARPU) rose by just 2.4%. Investors will watch Schulman’s first quarterly report, due in early February, for signs that new cost-management measures and digital healthcare partnerships can boost top-line growth.

On Wednesday, a technical failure left approximately 175,000 Verizon customers unable to make calls or access data, with phones displaying an “SOS” indicator. Downdetector user reports peaked at just over 180,000 incidents at 2:15 p.m. ET, primarily concentrated along the eastern seaboard but also affecting Chicago, Atlanta, Houston, San Francisco and Portland. Verizon engineering teams deployed field technicians to more than 50 network nodes and issued public updates stating that full restoration was expected by late evening. Despite intermittent recovery—some users briefly regained service before relapsing into outage mode—the company did not identify a root cause and continues to investigate potential software configuration errors in its voice-core network.

Verizon share performance held firm on Wednesday, with the company’s stock rising approximately 0.7% on the New York Stock Exchange, a day when major peers saw declines of 1% or more. Analysts from three major brokerage firms reiterated ‘buy’ ratings, noting Verizon’s dividend yield of 4.4% and its commitment to return at least $15 billion to shareholders through dividends and buybacks in 2026. While some market participants view the outage as a near-term reputational risk, institutional investors point to Verizon’s long-term cash flow stability and the growth potential of its newly formed business services unit as reasons to maintain or increase positions.