CEO Dan Schulman is delivering on the key metric Verizon brought him aboard to improve. The company announced its third-quarter results today, marking significant progress since Q3 2025, when postpaid phone net losses reached 7,000.
A record-breaking quarter
Q3 2026 | Image by Verizon
Verizon added a net 406,000 postpaid lines, its best third-quarter performance in five years. Postpaid net account additions were 137,000, the highest they have been in over a decade.
Postpaid churn, which weighed heavily on the company last year, improved by 4 bps to 0.87%.
Broader metrics also showed momentum. The company acquired 1.7 million mobility and broadband customers in the first nine months of 2026, up from 879,000 during the same period last year.
Broadband connections reached 17.4 million, driven by 159,000 fixed wireless access additions and 155,000 fiber subscribers.
Mobility and broadband service revenue climbed 2.9% to $23.5 billion. However, equipment revenue declined 9% year-over-year as customers held on to their devices longer.
We aren't competing on promotions or free phones or subsidies, which, by the way, to me, gives no one in the market any competitive advantage.
Dan Schulman, Verizon CEO, October 2026
Schulman saw the results as a sign that his transformation strategy is working. The new no-frills Simplicity plan and a focus on loyalty programs are the cornerstones of the effort, alongside a step back from heavy device discounts.
Simplicity, Verizon One and our loyalty program are resonating with our customers. Our loyalty program enrollment is scaling quickly across our base and the customer feedback data, whether it be Net Promoter Score, overall customer satisfaction or first call resolution is moving in the right direction on every dimension we track.
Dan Schulman, Verizon CEO, October 2026
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Why are customers flocking back to Verizon?
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Addressing the elephant in the room
Despite the stellar performance, Verizon's shares remain under pressure. SpaceX's push to launch Starlink Mobile has been hammering the Big Three. Schulman remains unfazed. He doesn't seem to think that CEO Elon Musk is fishing for an MVNO agreement, adding that Verizon would not lend him network capacity even if he were.
I also operate under the assumption that everything SpaceX says they will do, they will do. and that they will execute flawlessly.
Dan Schulman, Verizon CEO, October 2026
We always knew that they needed a terrestrial network to have any chance at providing a competitive service.
Dan Schulman, Verizon CEO, October 2026
Schulman predicts that building a mobile network could cost SpaceX between $300 billion and $500 billion over the next seven to eight years. He says Verizon will aggressively compete with Starlink Mobile when it launches.
And then sometime over the next 4, 6 years, they have the possibility of becoming the sixth, not the fourth, the sixth competitor in the market. And frankly, at that point, I welcome the opportunity to compete against them. But once they come into the market, we will be ferociously competitive.
Dan Schulman, Verizon CEO, October 2026
Musk reacted to the comment, claiming it will only take two to three years.
Starlink Mobile might be here sooner than Verizon anticipates. | Image by Elon Musk
SpaceX can't become a fourth carrier overnight
Schulman noted that SpaceX would need 5,000 to 80,000 macro sites, backhaul infrastructure, a RAN architecture, a "tremendous amount of spectrum," and at least four to six years to build a terrestrial component. After that will come front-end operations and customer service. And even after all that blood, sweat, and tears, SpaceX might become "the sixth competitor in the market" at best.
A resounding answer
Analysts view Verizon as the most vulnerable to Starlink Mobile due to a lack of organic revenue growth and reduced infrastructure spending. Following the earnings release, TMT analyst Walter Piecyk noted that the company is "still not growing revenue organically."
Nevertheless, Schulman is pleased with Verizon's trajectory, emphasizing that it has begun regaining market share after prolonged losses. The company has started talking up its millimeter wave spectrum again and is hoping to improve significantly by the time SpaceX arrives.
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Anam Hamid is a computer scientist turned tech journalist who has a keen interest in the tech world, with a particular focus on smartphones and tablets. She has previously written for Android Headlines and has also been a ghostwriter for several tech and car publications. Anam is not a tech hoarder and believes in using her gadgets for as long as possible. She is concerned about smartphone addiction and its impact on future generations, but she also appreciates the convenience that phones have brought into our lives. Anam is excited about technological advancements like folding screens and under-display sensors, and she often wonders about the future of technology. She values the overall experience of a device more than its individual specs and admires companies that deliver durable, high-quality products. In her free time, Anam enjoys reading, scrolling through Reddit and Instagram, and occasionally refreshing her programming skills through tutorials.
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