Verizon’s CEO Dan Schulman, who took over the top spot about a year ago, made a bold statement during his first earnings call in the top job.

“We must shift to a customer-first focus and redefine our trajectory,” he said.

That’s a bold statement from a company that was relentlessly teased, along with AT&T, by rival T-Mobile and its former CEO John Legere from 2012-2020. Legere dubbed T-Mobile the “Un-carrier.”

It’s a term that was used broadly to describe T-Mobile’s efforts to change how wireless companies treated their customers. It started with things like dropping overage charges, ending long-term contracts, and offering clear pricing, while simply treating customers better overall.

“Un-carrier has become synonymous with 100% customer commitment. We set out to change the game, and the results speak for themselves. See the moves that got us to where we are today,” the company shared on its website.

Now, at a time when you can argue that T-Mobile has lessened its focus on continuous customer-facing improvement, Schulman wants Verizon to take that title, and he appears to be making progress.

Verizon has one focus

When he stepped into the job, Schulman made it clear that he was not proposing small changes.

“This is not a course correction. It is a fundamental change in our strategic approach to customers. The only way we can drive sustainable value for our shareholders is by significantly raising our game and winning responsibly in the market,” he said.

CEOs, even new ones, rarely admit that their company needs major change, but Schulman embraced the idea and, one year later, he seems pleased with Verizon’s progress.

Schulman introduced Verizon’s “Simplicity Plan,” a flat-rate, unlimited wireless plan, and revamped its loyalty program.

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Verizon’s customer-first strategy has coincided with a sharp improvement in subscriber growth and customer retention.

Verizon reported postpaid phone net additions of 406,000 in Q3 2026, an 820% increase year over year, according to its third-quarter earnings release. In addition, more customers chose to stay with the carrier during the quarter, too, with consumer postpaid phone churn improving slightly to 0.87% for the quarter.

The growth, the company noted, has been a pattern.

  • Acquired nearly 1.7 million mobility and broadband subscribers in the first nine months of 2026, compared to 879,000 in the first nine months of 2025.
  • Mobility and broadband service revenue reached approximately $23.5 billion, representing a 2.9% increase year over year, continuing a sequential improvement from 2.8% in second-quarter 2026 and 1.6% in first-quarter 2026.

“By prioritizing customer-first offerings like Simplicity and our expanded loyalty program over heavy subsidies, we are winning loyal, high-value customers while expanding margins, reducing churn, and generating strong sustained cash flow,” Schulman said.

Verizon saw a large gain in phone customers in Q3.

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Verizon’s rival probably isn’t T-Mobile

The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) measures consumers’ satisfaction with wireless providers, offering a broader picture of how customers view their carriers.

Even with all of T-Mobile’s focus on customer service over the years, the difference between the carriers has never been that large.

ACSI

The room for growth, however, may not be from Verizon taking share from T-Mobile or AT&T. Instead, traditional carriers are battling Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs), which are lower-cost, prepaid services that rate much better with consumers.

ACSI

Former ACSI Managing Director David VanAmburg explained why MVNOs have an edge, noting that network quality isn’t a significant differentiator between the traditional carriers and the MVNOs that use the same networks.

“Customer satisfaction differences in MVNOs and MVNOs then come down to everything else such as flexibility, pricing, and value propositions,” VanAmburg told FierceWireless in 2019.

“Here, MVNOs are doing better than [traditional carriers]. One distinguishing factor is MVNOs’ prepaid options offer more flexibility than [traditional] contracts.”

Verizon has the right idea

I’ve been a T-Mobile customer since Legere took over and dropped overage charges. I’m not sure of the exact date, but probably sometime in 2013, because the company seemed focused on user experience and customer satisfaction.

At the time, I appreciated the clear pricing, promise of no increases, and not having to worry about overages.

Now, roughly 13 years later, I don’t feel the same loyalty because Legere’s successors, first Mike Sievert (2020-2025) and currently Srinivasan Gopalan (2025-present), just don’t seem as focused on customer service as Legere was.

That’s anecdotal and not backed by ACSI data, although the success of MVNOs suggests the big-three wireless carriers have room to make gains. But there’s also room to claim the disruptor crown that T-Mobile has slowly moved away from.

“As T-Mobile has grown, so too has the institutional pressure around it. T-Mobile is no longer a hungry, scrappy challenger. It’s a big dog, and with that comes stockholder pressure, increased infrastructure costs, and pressure to cut costs in staff and training,” Android Authority’s Andrew Grush wrote in July.

He offered some concrete examples.

“After years of slowly marching away from its Un-carrier image, T-Mobile started sprinting hard over the last year or so. Not only have we seen the death of all-inclusive taxes and fees, but the entire way the company approaches its customers is a complete reversal of the legendary Legere era. Most recently, T-Mobile has announced plans to migrate its legacy users over to newer plans as it retires Magenta, Simple Choice, and a handful of others,” he wrote.

Grush was not subtle in his assessment of the changes.

“And with this move, the final nail in Un-carrier’s coffin has now been hammered into place,” he added.

That, perhaps, gives Verizon an opening. Schulman certainly thinks so.

“We put our customers front and center, and we vowed to reclaim our market leadership and play to win. We have accomplished a lot, and today’s Verizon is in a fundamentally better position operationally, financially, and competitively,” he said during the company’s third-quarter earnings call.

Related: T-Mobile introduces phone plans with new rules for customer perks