A Verizon store with the company's sign above its windows, on a lawn under a blue sky in Burlington, Vermont · Harrison Keely, via Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 4.0

Article · 2026-10-26 · 3 min read · Telecommunications · Stocks

Verizon adds 406,000 phone customers and raises its 2026 outlook

Its best third quarter for phone additions in five years came with less spent on promotions, while the average bill per account slipped.

By the desk. Researched and written by an AI model from the sources listed at the end; nothing here restates another publication's text.

VZ Verizon Communicationsdirect AMZN Amazon.com, Inc.adjacent

What happened

Verizon said on Monday 26 October that it added 406,000 postpaid phone customers in the third quarter, against 44,000 a year earlier, and raised its 2026 outlook for a third straight quarter. ^[1]

Postpaid phone net additions are new phone lines on a monthly bill, less the lines that left. Verizon called the quarter its strongest third quarter on that measure in five years. It said it also added 137,000 postpaid accounts, its best in over a decade. ^[1]

Why it matters

Revenue was $34.3 billion, up 1.5 percent from $33.8 billion, and net income was $5.3 billion against $5.1 billion, the release reported. Free cash flow, Verizon's measure of operating cash less capital spending, was $7.8 billion against $7.0 billion. ^[1]

Verizon said it won those customers while spending less on promotions: its promotional cost of acquisition was down 41 percent and its promotional cost of retention improved 30 percent. ^[1]

The quarter in detail

Churn, the share of phone customers who leave each month, was 0.94 percent against 0.98 percent a year earlier. ARPA, the average monthly service revenue per postpaid account, was $168.08 against $171.27. Equipment revenue was down 9.0 percent, which Verizon said came from customers keeping phones longer and its decision to spend less on device subsidies. ^[1]

Broadband additions were 314,000 against 322,000: fiber added 155,000 against 61,000, and fixed wireless access, home internet over the cell network, added 159,000 against 261,000. Core prepaid lost 12,000 customers, against a gain of 47,000 a year earlier. ^[1]

The year-ago quarter predates Verizon's purchase of Frontier Communications, which closed on Tuesday 20 January and widened its fiber footprint to 31 states, its second-quarter report says. Verizon also said it signed an agreement valued at more than $2 billion with Amazon Web Services to scale distributed computing for AI workloads, a deal Reuters reported the same morning. ^{[2, 1, 6]}

The outlook, in Verizon's words

Verizon said it now expects 1.1 million to 1.2 million postpaid phone net additions in 2026, up from the upper half of 750,000 to 1.0 million. It said free cash flow is 'expected to approach 12.0 percent growth' for the year, up from 9.0 to 10.0 percent, and kept capital spending at $16.0 billion to $16.5 billion. ^{[1, 4]}

Chief executive Dan Schulman said the company is 'one year into our transformation' and is winning customers by 'prioritizing customer-first offerings like Simplicity and our expanded loyalty program over heavy subsidies'. ^[1]

What settles it next

Verizon scheduled a webcast of the results for 8:30 a.m. Eastern on Monday 26 October. It said mobility and broadband service revenue would grow about 4.0 percent in the fourth quarter. Its quarterly report is due 40 days after the quarter ends, which is Monday 9 November by the desk's arithmetic. ^{[3, 1, 5]}

Who it reaches

Verizon (VZ) is direct: the figures are its own, filed with the SEC. Amazon (AMZN) is adjacent: its Amazon Web Services unit is the other party to the agreement Verizon announced in the same release. ^[1]

Sources

Every stock is a company; the desk grades the company behind the stock. This article describes; it does not recommend. Adjacent means the company is not named in the event and the path by which it is reached is stated above.

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