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Verizon Cuts Free Perks: CEO Defends Cost-Cutting Move
6 May
Summary
- Verizon is ending free line offers and free handsets to customers.
- The company aims to focus on adding value and removing customer friction.
- First quarter revenue increased nearly 3% year-over-year to $34.4 billion.
Verizon's CEO, Dan Schulman, is standing by a strategic decision to reduce or eliminate key customer perks, such as free lines and free handsets. This initiative is a core component of the company's efforts to recover from substantial customer attrition over the past three years, during which it lost 2.25 million wireless customers.
Schulman stated that the company is pivoting from offering promotional freebies to emphasizing increased value and a smoother customer experience. He highlighted that these changes are showing positive momentum, with first-quarter 2026 revenue rising nearly 3% year-over-year to $34.4 billion.
Despite a slight increase in wireless churn in the first quarter of 2026, Schulman noted an improvement in consumer postpaid phone churn compared to the previous quarter. The company also completed its $20 billion acquisition of Frontier Communications in January 2026 to expand its fiber internet services.
