Grading Dan Schulman’s First Year at Verizon: Customers, Cash and the Starlink Question
Dan Schulman walked into Verizon carrying a turnaround promise and a mountain of debt, and one year later the scoreboard shows a CEO who delivered on some fronts while leaving others dangerously unresolved, including a rival beaming down from orbit.
One year in, Verizon (NYSE:VZ | VZ Price Prediction) CEO Dan Schulman says the company is “in a fundamentally better position, operationally, financially, and competitively.” On the October 26, 2026, earnings call, he noted, “It’s been just over a year since I had the privilege to become the CEO of Verizon.” Many dividend investors hold this stock, so the claim needs checking against the numbers.
Customers: Turnaround Earns Top Marks
Postpaid customers pay a monthly bill, and they are the most valuable subscribers in wireless. Verizon reported 406,000 third-quarter postpaid phone net additions, a year-over-year increase of 820%. The company also cited 137,000 net account additions, the best in over a decade. Churn measures the share of customers who leave each month, and Verizon reported consumer postpaid phone churn of 87 basis points. Promotional acquisition costs fell 41%, and retention costs dropped 30%.
Schulman credits Simplicity plans, the loyalty program, and Verizon One bundles, and he questions how rivals count growth: “Net adds are easy if your cost of acquisition goes way up and you give away a free line. I don’t consider free lines to even be net adds. I think they’re churn waiting to happen.”
In the latest periods, AT&T (NYSE:T) added 379,000 postpaid phones with 0.92% churn, and T-Mobile US (NASDAQ:TMUS) postpaid account churn rose 7 basis points to 0.99%. Verizon now leads AT&T on phone additions.
Cash: Strong Profits With Soft Spots
Verizon reported adjusted EPS of $1.31, with growth of 8%. Free cash flow, the cash left after network spending, reached $7.8 billion in the quarter, the highest since 2020. CFO Tony Skiadas reported an adjusted EBITDA margin (profit before interest, taxes, and depreciation) of 40.2%, a record. Verizon raised adjusted EPS growth guidance to 7% to 7.5% and increased free cash flow growth guidance to approach 12%. The quarterly dividend stands at $0.7075.
The report revealed total revenue of $34.3 billion and put growth at a modest 1.5%, as equipment revenue fell 9%. Management expects service revenue growth of roughly 4% in the fourth quarter. Debt totals $166.2 billion. Schulman said the $9 billion cost reduction plan remains fully on track.
Strategy, Stock, and the Starlink Question
Verizon announced a dark fiber deal with Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) unit Amazon Web Services worth over $2 billion, and it said signed AI connectivity contracts total approximately $4 billion. A gigabit fixed wireless product runs on 1,700 megahertz of millimeter wave spectrum, and fiber passings should top 32 million by year-end.
Verizon shares rose 14.9% from early October 2025 before falling 6.5% over the past month. Tough calls came early: Reuters reported that Verizon would cut about 15,000 jobs.
Starlink competition is a growing concern. Bloomberg Businessweek reported that SpaceX wants customers to “purchase their mobile service in lieu of an AT&T or Verizon.” Barron’s Streetwise responded: “Satellites are great for filling in telecom dead zones. But they are no match in urban and suburban markets for dense networks of cell towers and fiber optic cables.”
The Real Eisman Playbook reasoned, “the Telepocalypse is probably overblown.” Schulman argued that in markets “where like 98% of our revenues are, we’re somewhere between 100% to a thousand times more efficient than they are,” adding “There are no back doors to any of our MVNO agreements.”
Final Grade: B+
Schulman improved customer growth and cash generation faster than expected, while revenue, debt, and the satellite overhang keep him short of an A.
What to Watch
- The 2027 outlook promised for the next earnings call.
- Whether service revenue growth reaches the forecast 4% in the fourth quarter.
- How much revenue the AI contracts produce starting in 2027.
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Trey has been an editor and author at 24/7 Wall St. for more than a decade, where he has published thousands of articles analyzing corporate earnings, dividend stocks, short interest, insider buying, private equity, and market trends. His comprehensive coverage spans the full spectrum of financial markets, from blue-chip stalwarts to emerging growth companies.
Beyond 24/7 Wall St., Trey has created and edited financial content for Benzinga and AOL's BloggingStocks, contributing additional hundreds of articles to the investment community.
Trey's editorial expertise extends across multiple publishing environments. He served as production editor at Dearborn Financial Publishing and development editor at Kaplan, where he helped shape financial education materials. Earlier in his career, he worked as a writer-producer at SVE. His freelance editing portfolio includes work for prestigious clients such as Sage Publications, Rand McNally, the Institute for Supply Management, the American Library Association, Eggplant Literary Productions, and Spiegel.
Outside of financial journalism, Trey writes fiction and has been an active member of the writing community for years, moderating workshop sessions at regional conventions.
