Coaches in America’s National Football League (NFL) will tell you that N.F.L. stands for ‘Not For Long’ when any player’s performance is inconsistent and not contributing to the team’s success. So too, in the competitive telecommunications market, the Chief Executive Officer’s performance is tied directly to the company making its numbers.
Verizon (NYSE: VZ) announced on Monday that the company had appointed Dan Schulman as the new CEO, replacing Hans Vestberg, Inside Towers reported. While the announcement was unexpected, a closer look at Verizon’s operating metrics, particularly in its wireless operations, suggests that a CEO change was not so surprising.
Let’s start with the top line. The chart shows quarterly wireless service revenues for the past three years growing only at one percent CAGR. If you go back to August 2018 when Vestberg took over as CEO, the revenues have only grown at the same one percent CAGR over his entire tenure. More disconcerting is that the retail customer base has grown 25 percent over the same period to 146.1 million subscribers, the most among the U.S. mobile network operators, according to Inside Towers Intelligence.
Achieving significant growth in retail postpaid and prepaid net additions has been a challenge. Over the past three years, the company has only managed net adds of a few hundred thousand a quarter. By comparison, Verizon competitors are achieving two to three times that net add rate.
Verizon even incurred net losses in 2Q24 and again in 1Q25. Net adds tend to spike in the fourth quarter of the year when most mobile network operators roll out new wireless devices from Apple, Samsung, Google and others along with some sort of holiday promotional offer.
Verizon has struggled to find an offer that appeals to a wide audience and contributes to ARPU and overall revenue increases. For instance, in August of 2023, the company rolled out ‘myPlan’ which included customizable unlimited plans, a 3-year price lock and free phones to customers trading in their old phone and signing up for myPlan but with limited acceptance.
The company has had other promotions such as home internet bundles, legacy price increases, multi-device plan changes and unlimited calling plans. None of these made a significant difference to the top line even as the company touted having the country’s best network.
All the while, Verizon has invested over $10 billion a year in its wireless network, according to Inside Towers Intelligence. The company spent over $45 billion for midband C-band licenses across the country in FCC Auction 107 in January 2021. C-band is the foundation for its 5G UltraWideband service which the company is still building out.
C-band enables Verizon’s 5G Home Internet fixed wireless access service. The company reported 5.1 million FWA subscribers at the end of 2Q25 and is targeting 8-9 million by 2028. That lags T-Mobile’s (NASDAQ: TMUS) FWA deployment of 7.3 million at the end of the second quarter; T-Mobile is targeting 12 million FWA subscribers by 2028.
One can only assume that the Board, in looking at these massive capital outlays that have shown less than desirable returns, concluded that a different approach was warranted.
By John Celentano, Inside Towers Business Editor