Verizon adds 406,000 postpaid phones in third quarter and raises 2026 guidance

Verizon Communications (NYSE, Nasdaq: VZ) added 406,000 postpaid phone customers on a net basis in the third quarter and raised its 2026 forecasts for postpaid phone additions, adjusted earnings per share and free cash flow, according to its earnings release of October 26.

What happened

Verizon reported total operating revenue of $34.3 billion, up 1.5% from a year earlier. Service revenue from mobility and broadband was about $23.5 billion, up 2.9%, while wireless equipment revenue fell 9.0%. The company attributed the equipment decline mainly to lower upgrade volumes and its decision to spend less on device subsidies.

Net income was $5.3 billion, up 5.2%. Earnings per share were $1.25, up 6.8% from $1.17; excluding special items, a non-GAAP measure, adjusted earnings per share were $1.31, up 8.3% from $1.21. Consolidated adjusted EBITDA, another non-GAAP measure, was $13.8 billion, up 8.0%, with a margin of 40.2% against 37.8% a year earlier.

Cash flow from operations was $11.5 billion, up 2.2%. Free cash flow, a non-GAAP measure, was $7.8 billion, up 12.1%.

On customers, Verizon reported 406,000 postpaid phone net additions and 137,000 postpaid net account additions. Overall postpaid phone churn improved by 4 basis points from a year earlier to 0.94%. Broadband net additions were 314,000, made up of 159,000 fixed wireless access and 155,000 fiber customers.

Chief Executive Dan Schulman said in the release: "Verizon delivered another record-breaking quarter." The release also said Verizon signed an agreement valued at more than $2.0 billion with Amazon Web Services that "establishes a commercial framework to scale distributed compute" for agentic and generative AI workloads.

The background

Verizon raised its full-year forecasts for the third consecutive quarter. The company now expects:

• postpaid phone net additions of 1.1 million to 1.2 million, up from the upper half of 750,000 to 1.0 million;
• adjusted EPS of $5.04 to $5.06, or growth of 7.0% to 7.5%, up from 6.0% to 7.0%;
• cash flow from operations to grow 3.5% to 5.0%, up from 2.0% to 4.0%;
• free cash flow growth approaching 12.0%, up from 9.0% to 10.0%.

Capital expenditures for 2026 are still expected at $16.0 billion to $16.5 billion, the company said. Total unsecured debt was $136.1 billion at the end of the quarter, against $136.5 billion at the end of the second quarter. In the first nine months of the year Verizon returned $12.8 billion to shareholders, including $8.8 billion of dividends and $4.0 billion of share repurchases, and it still expects to repurchase up to $4.5 billion for the full year.

What to watch

Verizon said it expects mobility and broadband service revenue to grow about 4.0% in the fourth quarter of 2026, and it expects total fiber passings to exceed 32 million by the end of the year. The figures are company forecasts and can change.