Verizon Q4 results prove efforts to woo postpaid customers are paying off

After three challenging quarters, Verizon is ending 2025 on a strong note. The company had been losing postpaid subscribers and replaced CEO Hans Vestberg with Dan Schulman in October to right the ship. Q4 results show that Schulman is already delivering in his new role.

Verizon had the best quarter since 2019 in terms of subscriber growth

Verizon's customer base grew by over a million across mobility and broadband, setting a quarterly net additions record. The postpaid net additions were 616,000, up from 504,000 in Q4 2024.

The merger with Frontier expanded Verizon's fiber footprint to more than 30 million households and businesses, accelerating its convergence strategy. After the acquisition, the company now boasts over 16.3 million fixed wireless access and fiber broadband customers.

Total broadband net additions were 372,000 in Q4. The fixed wireless access customer base grew by 319,000, bringing the total to 5.7 million customers. The Fios customer base increased by 67,000, the highest net additions for a fourth quarter since 2020.

Total operating revenue increased from $134.8 billion in 2024 to $138.2 billion in 2025.

Verizon credits the strong quarter to Schulman's "play to win mandate." The CEO renewed his commitment to "delighting" customers and not being a hunting ground for rivals.

The carrier believes that it's at a turning point and has vowed to maintain its network excellence and keep customers happy as it enters 2026. The company expects postpaid phone net additions of 750,000 to 1.0 million this year, which would be a two- to threefold improvement over the 2025 results.

Verizon expects 2026 to be its strongest year in half a decade.

A strong comeback

Verizon trailed AT&T and T-Mobile in net additions (new customers minus those who left) for most of 2025, but it doesn't want to lose any more ground. While the company has so far shied away from a true price cut, it has been providing more value to customers via attractive offers on par with those offered by T-Mobile.

AT&T's postpaid phone net adds were 421,000 for Q4, so Verizon performed better than the number three carrier in Q4. T-Mobile will report its results next month.

T-Mobile delivered 1 million postpaid net adds in Q3, but it's believed that it lost some market share to Verizon in Q4. Whether the company will top Verizon's results remains to be seen.

Regardless of whether Verizon is outdone, the company has done well and is on an upward trajectory. In Q3, it reported 7,000 wireless postpaid phone net losses, and the number was 51,000 in Q2.

Not a win for customers

The fastest path to reclaiming past glory was believed to be a price war, but Verizon managed to come out of turmoil without outright price cuts. While the strategy worked well for Verizon, it might be disappointing for customers who were counting on Verizon to ignite a price war.