By Patience Haggin

Verizon Communications gained a net 616,000 postpaid phone connections in the fourth quarter, with its chief executive calling the period a "critical inflection point."

Dan Schulman took over as chief executive officer of the nation's largest wireless carrier in October with a mandate to execute cost cuts and a strategic turnaround after it lost ground to rivals. He ordered Verizon's largest-ever round of job cuts in November and called for the company to be "scrappier." This month he faced a major test as many Verizon customers lost service during an hourslong network outage.

The company said Friday that fourth-quarter revenue rose 2% year over year to $36.4 billion, slightly beating the expectations of analysts.

Wireless service revenue -- Verizon's largest business -- was $21 billion.

Verizon posted per-share earnings of 55 cents, or $1.09 excluding special items.

Analysts polled by FactSet expected about 417,000 net postpaid phone additions, far below the company's actual gains. Verizon secured the new connections during a competitive quarter, when both it and T-Mobile US launched promotions to lure rivals' customers.

After reporting gains in the year-ago holiday quarter, Verizon then shed core consumer postpaid phone connections for each of the subsequent three quarters.

The company issued a bullish forecast, saying it expects to add between 750,000 and one million net postpaid phone connections this year. Verizon expects wireless-service revenue to be fairly flat this year, while it sees total mobility and broadband-service revenue growing by 2% to 3%.

Verizon added 372,000 net broadband connections in the fourth quarter and ended the period with more than 16.3 million broadband connections. This month Verizon closed its $9.6 billion acquisition of Frontier Communications, which is expected to boost its broadband business further. Frontier expands Verizon's fiber footprint, helping the company's strategy of selling customers both mobile service and home internet.

Verizon added 319,000 net fixed-wireless connections in the quarter. Fixed-wireless service relies on cell towers instead of cables to a customer's home. Verizon forecast capital expenditures of between $16 billion and $16.5 billion for 2026, compared with about $17 billion in 2025.

Schulman, a former CEO of PayPal Holdings who was Verizon's lead independent director before taking over, said the company is focusing on "fiscally responsible growth."

Write to Patience Haggin at patience.haggin@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

Verizon's total fixed-wireless and fiber broadband connections were brought up to 16.3 million after it closed an acquisition of Frontier Communications this month. "Verizon Posts Strong Subscriber Gains in Its First Quarter Under New CEO," at 6:30 a.m. ET, incorrectly said it reached that number at the end of the fourth quarter.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 30, 2026 07:21 ET (12:21 GMT)

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