Verizon Hits Record Benchmarks in Third Quarter with Surging Subscriber Growth and AI Investment
Verizon Communications reported record-breaking third-quarter results for 2026, characterized by a massive surge in postpaid phone subscribers and the highest quarterly adjusted EBITDA in the company’s history. The performance, which saw a more than 800 percent year-over-year increase in key wireless metrics, led the telecommunications giant to raise its full-year financial and operational guidance for the third consecutive quarter.
The company reported 406,000 postpaid phone net additions for the quarter, a staggering jump of more than 820 percent compared to the same period in 2025. This figure represents Verizon’s most robust third-quarter performance in five years. Additionally, the company added 137,000 postpaid net accounts, marking its best quarterly account growth in over a decade. These gains came alongside a reduction in churn, which is the rate at which customers leave the service. Total postpaid phone churn improved to 0.94 percent, while consumer-specific churn dropped to 0.87 percent.
Verizon CEO Dan Schulman attributed the results to a multi-year transformation strategy that emphasizes long-term customer loyalty over the aggressive device subsidies that have long defined the wireless industry. One year into this transformation, Schulman noted that the company is winning high-value customers through its Simplicity offerings and expanded loyalty programs. This shift allowed Verizon to decrease its promotional cost of acquisition by 41 percent and its cost of retention by 30 percent year-over-year.
The financial impact of this strategic pivot was evident in the company’s revenue mix. Total operating revenue for the quarter reached $34.3 billion, a 1.5 percent increase from the previous year. While mobility and broadband service revenue grew by 2.9 percent to $23.5 billion, equipment revenue saw a 9.0 percent decline. Executives indicated this drop was a deliberate result of the company’s disciplined approach to subsidies and the fact that customers are keeping their mobile devices for longer periods.
Profitability metrics reached new heights during the quarter. Consolidated net income rose 5.2 percent year-over-year to $5.3 billion. Adjusted EBITDA reached $13.8 billion, up 8.0 percent, setting a new quarterly record for the company. Consequently, the adjusted EBITDA margin expanded from 37.8 percent to 40.2 percent. Reported earnings per share stood at $1.25, while adjusted earnings per share reached $1.31, an 8.3 percent increase over the third quarter of 2025.
Beyond traditional wireless services, Verizon’s broadband and fiber segments showed sustained momentum. The company reported 314,000 total broadband net additions, including 159,000 fixed wireless access connections and 155,000 fiber broadband additions. Verizon now manages 17.4 million total broadband connections. More than half of its new fiber customers are opting for download speeds of 1 gigabit or higher. The company remains on track to exceed 32 million fiber passings by the end of the year, with a medium-term target of 40 million to 50 million passings.
In a move to position itself at the center of the burgeoning artificial intelligence sector, Verizon announced a commercial framework agreement with Amazon Web Services (AWS) valued at over $2 billion. The partnership is designed to scale distributed compute capabilities to support the real-time demands of agentic and generative AI workloads. This infrastructure investment aligns with Verizon’s AI Connect initiative, which is included in the company’s annual capital expenditure forecast of $16.0 billion to $16.5 billion.
Verizon’s cash flow and balance sheet also showed improvement. Cash flow from operating activities for the quarter was $11.5 billion, supporting free cash flow of $7.8 billion, a 12.1 percent year-over-year increase. For the first nine months of 2026, the company has returned $12.8 billion to shareholders through $8.8 billion in dividends and $4.0 billion in share repurchases. Total net unsecured debt decreased to $123.7 billion by the end of the quarter, down from $128.7 billion at the end of the second quarter.
Looking ahead, Verizon has revised its 2026 outlook upward across several key categories. The company now expects full-year postpaid phone net additions to fall between 1.1 million and 1.2 million, more than triple the growth seen in 2025. Adjusted earnings per share are now forecast at $5.04 to $5.06, reflecting year-over-year growth of 7.0 to 7.5 percent. Free cash flow is expected to approach 12 percent growth for the year, while mobility and broadband service revenue is projected to grow by approximately 4.0 percent in the fourth quarter.
