Early last month there was a changing of the guards at Verizon as Hans Vestberg stepped down as the carrier's CEO after eight years and was promptly replaced by Dan Schulman. The latter helped start Virgin Mobile and worked at AT&T in addition to enjoying a recent stint at PayPal where he was CEO. Verizon is like the football team up by three touchdowns (that's 21 points including the three extra-point kicks for those who aren't sports fans) with about 10 minutes left in the final quarter.
Verizon is playing not to lose while T-Mobile plays to win; see the difference?
Teams in that position are happy to run out the clock and so they drop the aggressive play that got them the lead in the first place and instead they become conservative, hoping not to make any mistake that can lead to a turnover, change the momentum, and cost them the game. The winning team starts playing not to lose while the losing team becomes aggressive and plays to win. Before you know it, the game is tied and the team that was losing kicks a game winning field goal as time runs out.
Do you think the new Verizon CEO will prove to be good?
Hopefully.
26.87%
Doesn't look like it.
22.46%
Maybe for their bottom line but not for customers.
50.67%
This is what just happened to Verizon. They have become complacent, boring, and they are playing not to lose. That is why the more aggressive T-Mobile, the Un-carrier, now has more customers than Verizon. When I first became a Verizon customer 20 years ago pre-dating the iPhone and the start of the touchscreen smartphone era, Verizon was very clearly the number one wireless provider in the U.S. and with kids, my wife and I wanted to have service with the most reliable carrier.
At one time Verizon's network was much better than T-Mobile's network
Many Americans thought like that at the time as T-Mobile recently and nostalgically recalled in a commercial starring Billy Bob Thornton. In the ad, Thornton says, "...for years everyone thought Verizon had the best network. Because they did. But now the best mobile network in the U.S. is T-Mobile..." Whether you think that is true or not, Verizon finds itself in a position that it not only is unfamiliar with but is one that could get worse.
T-Mobile Tuesdays rewards can be redeemed from the T-Life app. | Image credit-PhoneArena
As a Verizon customer, I admit it. I wish we had a rewards program like T-Mobile Tuesdays. I also wish we got perks like T-Mobile subscribers get such as free Netflix, a free year of AAA membership, free in-flight Wi-Fi, and more. Verizon charges $10 per month for its perks. Hopefully, the new CEO can turn things around. But more than 50% of PhoneArena readers, who took the time to respond to a poll that my colleague Anam added to a recent story she wrote about the carrier, have a negative outlook about the new CEO.
PhoneArena readers believe that the new CEO will focus more on profits rather than subscribers
To be precise, 50.67% of the 519 voters who responded to the poll believe that any actions taken by Schulman will be made to improve Verizon's bottom line and not the customers' experiences. If you were around to see T-Mobile and Verizon in 2009, when I joined PhoneArena, you might find it hard to believe that anyone would ever write that Verizon needs to be more like T-Mobile. But in 2025, this is exactly the case.
This isn't to say that T-Mobile doesn't have issues of its own led by the controversial T-Life app. T-Mobile seems ready to transition to a digital Mobile Network Operator (MNO), and subscribers need to use the T-Life app to manage every aspect of their account from paying bills to ordering new phones and accessories. If Verizon wants to recapture the top spot from T-Mobile, it will need to focus on personal service which might not jive with the recent layoffs.
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Schulman needs to show Americans that Verizon is aggressive, that it is playing to win, and that customers come first. After 20 years as a Verizon customer, I don't believe that it can do this to my satisfaction. I plan to request a port-out PIN and I'm sure I won't be the only one.
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Alan, an ardent smartphone enthusiast and a veteran writer at PhoneArena since 2009, has witnessed and chronicled the transformative years of mobile technology. Owning iconic phones from the original iPhone to the iPhone 15 Pro Max, he has seen smartphones evolve into a global phenomenon. Beyond smartphones, Alan has covered the emergence of tablets, smartwatches, and smart speakers.
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