Verizon Posts Strong Subscriber Gains Under New CEO

Verizon Communications gained a net 616,000 postpaid phone connections in the fourth quarter, with its chief executive calling the period a “critical inflection point.”

The company posted its biggest quarterly combined mobile and broadband net additions since 2019. Shares rose 5% in premarket trading.

Dan Schulman took over as CEO of the nation’s largest wireless carrier in October with a mandate to execute cost cuts and a strategic turnaround after it lost ground to rivals. He ordered Verizon’s largest-ever round of job cuts in November and called for the company to be “scrappier.”

He said during Friday’s earnings call that the company expects to realize $5 billion in operating expenditure savings this year.

The company’s fourth-quarter revenue rose 2% year over year to $36.4 billion, slightly beating the expectations of analysts.

It ended the period with 146.9 million total wireless retail connections. Wireless service revenue—Verizon’s largest business—was $21 billion.

Verizon reported per-share earnings of 55 cents, or $1.09 excluding special items. The company booked severance charges from its layoffs, which reduced its profit.

Schulman, who previously ran PayPal and was Verizon’s lead independent director before taking over as CEO, said Friday that the company is “examining every dollar” of operating and capital expenditures, continuing to streamline operations and focusing on fiscally responsible growth. Verizon expects to realize $5 billion in operating expenditure savings this year, Schulman said during the call.

Analysts polled by FactSet expected about 417,000 net postpaid phone additions, far below the company’s actual gains. Verizon secured the new connections during a competitive quarter, when both it and T-Mobile US launched promotions to lure rivals’ customers.

After reporting gains in the year-ago holiday quarter, Verizon then shed core consumer postpaid phone connections for each of the subsequent three quarters.

The company issued a bullish forecast, saying it expects to add between 750,000 and one million net postpaid phone connections this year. Verizon expects wireless-service revenue to be fairly flat this year, while it sees total mobility and broadband-service revenue growing by 2% to 3%.

Schulman said Verizon would no longer raise prices without increasing the value it offered, as that prior approach was driving customers away.

The company forecast capital expenditures of between $16 billion and $16.5 billion for 2026, compared with $17 billion in 2025.

It added 372,000 net broadband connections in the fourth quarter. This month the company closed its $9.6 billion acquisition of Frontier Communications, which brought its total fixed-wireless and fiber broadband connections up to 16.3 million. Frontier expands Verizon’s fiber footprint, helping the company’s strategy of selling customers both mobile service and home internet.

Verizon added 319,000 net fixed-wireless connections in the quarter. Fixed-wireless service relies on cell towers instead of cables to a customer’s home.

Verizon said Friday that its board has authorized up to $25 billion in share repurchases over the next three years.

Schulman also apologized for a widespread, hourslong network outage earlier this month that affected millions of customers.

Write to Patience Haggin at patience.haggin@wsj.com

Corrections & Amplifications
Verizon’s total fixed-wireless and fiber broadband connections were brought up to 16.3 million after it closed an acquisition of Frontier Communications this month. An earlier version of this article incorrectly said it reached that number at the end of the fourth quarter. (Corrected on Jan. 30)