Verizon reported third-quarter 2026 results on October 26, 2026, with total operating revenue of $34.3 billion, up 1.5% from a year earlier, and consolidated net income of $5.3 billion, up 5.2%. Adjusted earnings came to $1.31 a share. The story of the quarter was customers: Verizon added 406,000 postpaid phone lines, nearly ten times the 44,000 it added a year earlier, and it raised its full-year outlook for the third time this year.

The headline numbers

Revenue of $34.3 billion was up 1.5% year over year. Within that, mobility and broadband service revenue rose 2.9%, while wireless equipment revenue fell 9.0% to $5.1 billion as fewer customers upgraded their phones. On the bottom line, GAAP earnings were $1.25 a share, up 6.8%, and adjusted earnings, which strip out certain items, were $1.31, up 8.3%.

Consolidated adjusted EBITDA, a measure of operating profit before interest, taxes and some other costs, reached $13.8 billion, up 8.0%. Verizon called it the highest the company has ever reported. The margin on that measure widened to 40.2% from 37.8% a year earlier, which is the part that explains how revenue up only 1.5% produced profit up 5% and cash flow up more. Free cash flow was $7.8 billion, up 12.1%.

Against Wall Street's going-in expectations it was a mixed top line and a clear beat on the bottom. An October 5 preview from the research firm Hudson Labs put consensus at about $34.86 billion in revenue and $1.28 in adjusted EPS, so revenue landed modestly short of that estimate while adjusted earnings came in a few cents ahead. Those comparisons use third-party estimates, which vary by source.

Phone customers came back

The number that stood out was 406,000 postpaid phone net additions, which Verizon said was its strongest third quarter in five years, against just 44,000 a year earlier. Postpaid net account additions of 137,000 were the best in more than a decade. Churn, the rate at which customers leave, improved to 0.94% from 0.98% for postpaid phones, and consumer churn was 0.87%.

Verizon tied the turnaround to a strategy shift under Dan Schulman, who became chief executive in 2025 after running PayPal. The company has leaned on simpler plans and an expanded loyalty program rather than heavy device subsidies to win and keep customers. It said promotional cost of acquisition fell 41% year over year and promotional cost of retention improved 30%, which means it spent less to add and to hold each customer even as it added far more of them. That combination, more customers at a lower cost to serve, is what pushed the margin to a record.

What Verizon told investors about the rest of 2026

Verizon raised its full-year 2026 guidance for the third time. It now expects 1.1 million to 1.2 million postpaid phone net additions, up from a prior range in the upper half of 750,000 to 1.0 million. It lifted adjusted EPS guidance to $5.04 to $5.06, or 7.0% to 7.5% growth, from a prior 6.0% to 7.0%. It also raised its outlook for operating cash flow growth to 3.5% to 5.0% and for free cash flow growth to approaching 12.0%. Capital spending guidance was unchanged at $16.0 billion to $16.5 billion.

Those figures are the company's own outlook, not a promise, and they can change with competition and the economy. We report them as what Verizon said it expects, not as a forecast of our own.

The parts that were not records

Not everything improved. Broadband net additions slipped to 314,000 from 322,000, split between 159,000 fixed wireless access lines and 155,000 fiber lines. Equipment revenue fell 9.0%, a direct result of the same pullback in subsidized upgrades that helped the margin. And the bar is now high: after three guidance raises in one year, Verizon has set expectations it will have to keep meeting, and the easy year-over-year comparisons get harder from here.

Schulman pointed to the fiber network as a longer-term story. "At the same time, technology leaders are choosing our fiber network to power the next generation of AI infrastructure," he said in the release, linking Verizon's wired network to the data-center demand reshaping the industry.

How this compares with a year ago

The contrast with the third quarter of 2025 is the real measure of the turnaround. A year ago Verizon added just 44,000 postpaid phone lines and ran a 37.8% adjusted EBITDA margin; this quarter it added 406,000 and reported a 40.2% margin. Net income rose from $5.1 billion to $5.3 billion, adjusted earnings from $1.21 to $1.31 a share, and free cash flow from $7.0 billion to $7.8 billion. The pattern across those numbers is consistent: modest revenue growth, but more customers won at a lower cost to acquire and keep, which flows through to wider margins and more cash. That is the mechanism behind a record profit measure on revenue that grew only 1.5%.

What to watch next

For readers who hold Verizon directly, own an index fund that includes it, or simply track the big US carriers, three things are worth following. First, whether the phone-customer momentum holds once the loyalty-program comparisons get tougher next year. Second, whether broadband additions reaccelerate or keep drifting lower. Third, whether the fiber and AI-infrastructure demand Schulman described turns into reported revenue rather than a talking point.

Verizon's next scheduled update is its fourth-quarter and full-year report in early 2027. If you want to read that release yourself when it lands, our guide to how to read a company earnings report walks through revenue, EPS, beats, misses and guidance, and for where a single stock like Verizon sits in the wider market, see what a stock market index tracks.