On its fourth quarter 2025 earnings call, Verizon’s leadership laid out a comprehensive transformation strategy centered on simplifying the customer experience, accelerating execution and rebuilding brand trust. CEO Dan Schulman opened by acknowledging a significant network outage earlier in the month, stating the company fell short of reliability standards and pledging to “relentlessly” enhance network uptime. He described the current phase as a “critical inflection point” and characterized Verizon’s efforts as a turnaround story, with initiatives to streamline operations, reduce organizational layers and eliminate underperforming resources in order to free up capital for reinvestment in growth areas.

CFO Tony Skiadas reported that Verizon achieved its highest quarterly subscriber additions in six years, with over one million net adds across mobility and broadband in Q4. This included 616,000 postpaid phone net adds—of which 551,000 were consumer accounts—and 372,000 broadband net additions, comprised of 319,000 fixed wireless access connections and 67,000 Fios Internet subscribers. Despite these gains, postpaid phone churn remained elevated due to prior pricing actions and competitive pressures. Management identified churn reduction as a pivotal opportunity for 2026 and plans targeted investments in customer experience enhancements and product convergence to improve retention.

Verizon marked the closing of its Frontier acquisition as a cornerstone of its converged strategy, now boasting over 30 million fiber passings in combined markets. CEO Schulman said the company will add at least two million fiber passings this year, aiming for a medium-term target of 40–50 million. Integration efforts are expected to yield more than $1 billion in annual operating cost synergies by 2028—double initial estimates—driven by network consolidation, contract renegotiations and marketing efficiencies. Frontier’s own fiber footprint grew by 1.3 million passings in 2025, bringing its total to more than nine million and generating 125,000 fiber net additions, up 29% year-over-year.

For full-year 2025, Verizon delivered consolidated adjusted EBITDA of $50.0 billion, up 2.5% from the prior year, and generated $20.1 billion in free cash flow on $37.1 billion of operating cash flow and $17 billion of capital expenditures. Net unsecured debt declined by $3.6 billion to $110.1 billion, with leverage at 2.2x adjusted EBITDA. Looking ahead to 2026, Verizon guides to 750,000–1,000,000 postpaid phone net additions, 2%–3% growth in mobility and broadband service revenue, adjusted EPS of $4.90–$4.95 and at least $21.5 billion in free cash flow. The board has declared a dividend increase of 2.5%, marking the twentieth consecutive year of raises, and authorized up to $25 billion in share repurchases over the next three years, including at least $3 billion in 2026.