- Under new CEO Dan Schulman, the company is undergoing massive changes – but is mum on exactly how it’s going to do better by customers
- Schulman teased a new “value proposition” during the Q1 earnings call
- “We are all waiting with bated breath,” said industry analyst Roger Entner
Everyone knows Verizon’s in turn-around mode, big time. After losing subscribers to T-Mobile and AT&T for years, the company tapped industry veteran and former PayPal CEO Dan Schulman to do the hard, sometimes painful work required to right the ship.
But aside from a few interviews with the likes of the Wall Street Journal about disruptions from AI and the occasional press release touting its status as the official telecom sponsor for the FIFA World Cup 2026, the company’s been pretty quiet. They were nowhere to be seen at Mobile World Congress 2026 in Barcelona, although Schulman did appear at a Morgan Stanley conference on March 2, the same time everyone in the wireless industry was gathered in Spain.
“Verizon has been eerily quiet in recent months,” said Jeff Moore, principal at Wave7 Research, noting the dearth of press releases since the first of the year.
During the company’s Q4 2025 call in January, Schulman said they were “fine tuning” a new value proposition that he was very careful not to spill the beans about. “We are not going to show our hand until the day we launch,” he said.
It seems he wasn’t kidding. Roger Entner, founder of Recon Analytics, isn’t even speculating on what that value proposition might entail. “We are all waiting with bated breath,” he told Fierce. “They are extremely quiet about this stuff.”
Verizon’s wireless, wired strategy
Exactly what Verizon might be cooking up is hard to say, but Mike Dano, lead industry analyst at Ookla, expects the company is probably looking at ways to leverage their wireless holdings – across both prepaid and postpaid – as well as their wired offerings and the various brands they operate, from Fios to Visible.
“Verizon will also need to develop a competitive response to converged offerings from the likes of AT&T, Comcast and Charter, while addressing new market developments like Starlink’s fixed and mobile services,” he told Fierce. “Certainly, they could also look at ways to offer third-party services and products, whether that’s streaming video services, credit card programs, banking options, or something else.”
He anticipates more of the kinds of tactical, strategic agreements along the lines of the agreement with FIFA for the World Cup. A refreshed rate card is probably in the mix as well, potentially focusing more heavily on wireless-wireline convergence, as well as satellite.
“Those kinds of pricing overhauls happen every few years in the industry and often offer a clear look into a provider’s overall customer-acquisition strategy,” he said.
Contractors’ beef with Verizon
Obviously, Schulman and his team have a lot on their plate. Besides losing market share and market value, Verizon is grappling with a network that isn’t as good as it once was – T-Mobile claimed the “best network” title in the 5G era – and as Schulman acknowledged last week, it needs to do better at the “basic stuff,” like treating customers like humans and not accounts.
There’s also a dispute going on with contractors.
During the Morgan Stanley event in March, Schulman noted last year’s 13,000 job cuts and said “we took out a whole heck of a lot of our contracted workforce as well.” Notably, he didn’t specifically address the complaints from workers who build and maintain its network, as represented by the National Association of Tower Erectors (NATE).
Basically, NATE says Verizon isn’t living up to a framework agreement that was intended to support a sustainable contracting environment through regional pricing structures, inflation accommodations and the preservation of a competitive vendor ecosystem. The organization is seeking intervention by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).
“NATE has consistently advocated for fair, transparent and economically viable contracting standards that support a strong, safe and qualified workforce,” NATE President and CEO Todd Schlekeway told Fierce. “The present trajectory of Verizon’s RFP process, marked by unrealistic financial requirements, lack of volume certainty, and extended payment timelines, undermines those principles and places unsustainable pressure on contractors across the industry. “
In response to Fierce’s inquiry, Verizon provided the following statement: "We take seriously the framework that we committed to with NATE and we have complied with those commitments. We'll continue working in good faith with NATE to implement the framework."
Time for an update
Schulman’s been on the job about seven months now. We’ll see how much he’s accomplished when Verizon reports Q1 2026 earnings on Monday, April 27 – and hopefully hear more about what’s in store for the nation’s largest mobile operator.