Verizon Posts Strong Q3 2026 Results, Raises Full-Year Guidance

Verizon Communications on Friday reported third-quarter 2026 results that the company described as record-setting, and raised its full-year guidance for the third consecutive quarter. The US telecom operator said it added more postpaid phone lines than in any third quarter in five years, and it announced a dark fiber agreement with Amazon Web Services valued at more than $2 billion.

The results come about a year into the tenure of chief executive Dan Schulman, who has been reshaping the company's strategy. Verizon said the performance reflects its multi-year transformation, which it says has lowered churn compared with a year earlier.

Subscriber growth and costs

Verizon added 406,000 postpaid phone net additions in the quarter, a rise of more than 820% from a year earlier. It also added 137,000 postpaid net accounts, its best quarterly account growth in more than a decade. The company now expects 2026 postpaid phone net additions of 1.1 million to 1.2 million, more than three times last year's result.

Schulman said the company avoided giving away free lines. "No free lines. Every single line and account came with revenue," he said on the earnings call. He added that the cost to acquire new accounts and lines fell 41%.

Verizon's total revenue rose 1.5% year over year to $34.31 billion, below analyst expectations of $34.85 billion. Mobility and broadband service revenue reached $23.5 billion, growing 2.9% year over year, and the company forecasts growth of about 4% in the fourth quarter. Adjusted earnings per share were $1.31, up 8%. The company now expects full-year 2026 adjusted EPS growth of 7% to 7.5%, up from its earlier range of 6% to 7%.

Broadband and fixed wireless

Verizon added 314,000 broadband customers in the quarter, including 159,000 fixed wireless access (FWA) net additions and 155,000 fiber net additions. Wolf Research analyst Peter Supino said both figures fell short of expectations, which he put at about 200,000 for FWA and 180,000 for fiber.

Schulman said Verizon would stop selling services where it cannot deliver the speed a customer segment expects. The company also plans to offer a 1 gigabit FWA product in metro areas using its millimeter wave spectrum, with a rollout beginning this quarter. Verizon said more than 55% of new fiber broadband customers take speeds of 1 gigabit or more, and it still expects more than 32 million fiber passings by year-end.

AI infrastructure deals

The company is positioning its fiber network as infrastructure for artificial intelligence. Verizon said it signed a multi-year agreement with Corning for more than 80 million miles of fiber through 2032, and it also has a $1 billion agreement with Google that it announced last quarter. The new Amazon Web Services deal, valued at over $2 billion, adds to these contracts.

Schulman said Verizon has an active pipeline of additional hyperscalers, neocloud providers and large enterprise clients in talks for dark or lit fiber. The company said it has signed contracts worth about $4 billion across hyperscaler and edge computing deals. These initiatives fall under a program called AI Connect, which was launched in 2025 under former CEO Hans Vestberg.

Competition from SpaceX

Schulman also addressed SpaceX's satellite plans. Bloomberg reported last week that SpaceX was in talks with tower companies about leasing up to 80,000 wireless towers to build a standalone mobile network. Schulman said he assumed SpaceX would execute on its stated plans, and that a terrestrial network would be needed for any competitive mobile service.

Verizon's forward-looking statements, including its guidance, carry the usual risks tied to competition, technology, regulation and economic conditions, the company said in its release.

What we know so far: Verizon has beaten its own subscriber benchmarks on phone and account growth and raised its 2026 outlook, while revenue and broadband net adds came in below some analyst expectations. The Amazon Web Services fiber deal and the company's push into AI infrastructure are the next areas to watch, along with the planned rollout of its mmWave fixed wireless service.