- Verizon in Q2 posted its best postpaid mobile phone net additions in five years
- CEO Dan Schulman said his multi-year plan is working; the board extended his contract through 2028
- Addressing Starlink Mobile speculation, Schulman said there’s “no backdoor” to Verizon’s MVNOs “in any structure”
Verizon CEO Dan Schulman took a victory lap of sorts today, declaring Verizon’s best second quarter in five years, with 184,000 postpaid phone net additions and more than 550,000 total mobility and broadband net additions in Q2. Prepaid net adds were 77,300.
“We’re putting customers at the center of every decision we make,” Schulman said. “This is a multi-year story and we are early in it.”
To that end, Verizon said it extended his contract through December 31, 2028, one year longer than he was previously set to serve. Lucky for him, although we’re not sure how much so considering he was having a great time on his ranch in Montana before agreeing to take on the role as head chief.
Indeed, Schulman claimed a string of wins in the second quarter of 2026 and highlighted some of the transformative steps taken since he became CEO in October. Among them: a new loyalty program that rewards customers just for being with Verizon, a simplified price plan – “no games,” he said – and a fully converged nationwide mobility and broadband plan called Verizon One for $70/month, with taxes and fees included.
“This is what convergence is supposed to feel like for a customer: one price, one bill, one call if you need help, nationwide coverage, all backed by one company,” he said.
He also highlighted some of the deals announced in the quarter, including the $4 billion 50/50 joint venture with BT that combines their respective international assets into a single entity.
Big deal with Google
Verizon also recently signed an agreement with Google valued at more than $1 billion to use Verizon dark fiber to connect their data centers. Schulman said other deals related to AI infrastructure are expected to be announced by year end that, taken together, will be worth multiple billions of dollars in revenue over the next several years.
In the more immediate term, the quarter wasn’t all rosy as total revenue was $34.3 billion, down 0.7% year-over-year, largely due to a nearly 20% decline in equipment revenue as customers hold onto their phones longer before upgrading.
But overall, Wall Street’s reaction to the “Dan Plan” was mostly positive, with Verizon shares trading up more than 3% this morning, to $45.44.
Schulman's take on satellites
While Verizon's turnaround progress is one headline, Schulman also addressed the big “elephant in the room” that is satellite connectivity. Overshadowing the entire mobile sector lately has been the prospect of SpaceX’s Starlink Mobile becoming a bigger competitor in wireless and going head-to-head with AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon.
Schulman shot down some of the speculation around how Starlink might try to weasel into wireless through a cable company’s MVNO. Verizon is the consumer MVNO partner for Comcast and Charter Communications.
A Bloomberg report last month said SpaceX and Charter held executive-level talks about partnering on a consumer mobile phone offering, raising speculation about how Starlink Mobile might gain access to terrestrial equipment.
“There is no backdoor to our MVNOs in any structure,” Schulman said.
He reiterated that Verizon does not intend to do an MVNO with a satellite player. However, it does see satellite connectivity as complementary to its terrestrial network and plans to work with low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite providers primarily through the direct-to-device (D2D) JV that it’s setting up with T-Mobile and AT&T.
In terms of broadband competition from satellite providers, “it is very difficult for satellite providers to provide a service that's even close to what we can provide with our broadband services,” he said.
He walked through the basics of satellite beams and what they can offer by way of speeds versus ground-based systems.
“We’re like 100 times to 1,000 times more efficient,” he said. “Our speeds and capabilities are much higher, and it’s basically not possible because of physics. Not because of execution, but because of physics.”
The majority of Verizon’s service revenue is in urban and suburban geographies. He acknowledged that satellite does have a total addressable market (TAM) that’s probably between 6 million and 8 million homes in the U.S., primarily in very rural geographies where building out a terrestrial network is cost prohibitive.
“It doesn’t pencil out,” he said.
By the Q2 numbers
- Mobility and broadband service revenue reached about $23.4 billion, a 2.8% increase year-over-year.
- Postpaid phone churn was 0.92%.
- Fixed wireless access (FWA) net additions in Q2 totaled 193,000. Total fiber broadband additions were 155,000. Verizon now has about 17.1 million FWA and fiber broadband connections.
- Looking ahead, Verizon’s total retail postpaid phone net additions are expected to be in the upper half of the 750,000 to 1.0 million range in 2026.
- The company is forecasting 2026 capital expenditures of $16.0 billion to $16.5 billion.
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