Verizon just broke a decade-long streak, posting its first positive first-quarter net postpaid phone adds since 2013—55,000 new customers—while slashing churn and customer acquisition costs. Revenue climbed to $34.4 billion, shares jumped, and CEO Dan Schulman reported lower churn and a sharp 35% drop in retention costs. With margins expanding and free cash flow up, Verizon raised its 2026 growth outlook, but flagged that a January outage still dented Q1’s wireless revenue.

But here’s the catch: Verizon’s big bet is on “convergence”—bundling wireless with broadband to lock in customers and boost account value. Fixed wireless adds households quickly, but long-term gains hinge on expanding fiber, where rivals are making aggressive moves. T-Mobile just inked two major joint ventures to roll out fiber faster, targeting nearly 2 million homes by 2026 and pushing to 18–19 million broadband customers by 2030, forcing Verizon to either speed up its own fiber plans or risk falling behind.

Featuring insights from CEO Dan Schulman and grounded in real quarterly numbers, this episode dives into how Verizon’s strategy is being tested by a fiber arms race—and whether they can outpace rivals before the clock runs out.

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