Verizon recently scored some wins in improving customer retention within its business; however, it is seeing an unexpected slowdown in demand for a service that has become a key battleground for major wireless carriers.
In the second quarter of 2026, Verizon managed to turn around its wireless business after years of customer losses.
It added 184,000 postpaid phone customers during the quarter and saw its wireless retail postpaid phone churn (the percentage of customers who canceled their wireless service) fall to 0.92%, down from 0.97% it reported for the same time period last year.
The improvement in churn comes after the company shifted away from price increases that don’t add more value for customers. It also recently launched its Simplicity and Verizon One plans, both of which offer lower-priced wireless service, and a loyalty rewards program.
Verizon sees demand for fixed wireless access internet dip
Despite seeing improvement in its wireless business, Verizon is seeing demand decline for its fixed wireless access (FWA) internet service.
It added only 193,000 new customers to this service during the second quarter, which is 30.6% fewer than it added in the same quarter in 2025.
FWA internet (also known as 5G home internet) has rapidly become a popular broadband option due to its lower prices and wider availability in rural and underserved areas compared to traditional wired internet.
“Not long ago, fixed wireless was not a factor, but fixed wireless has gained 14 percent of the market and this figure is rapidly rising,” said Jeff Moore, principal of Wave7 Research, in a RCR Wireless News report in May.
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“The national carriers – T-Mobile, Verizon, and AT&T – are primarily responsible for this,” he continued. “T-Mobile had over nine million fixed wireless subscribers and is expected to have 12 million by the end of 2028. Verizon had 5.7 million subscribers as 2025 ended, and AT&T had 2.3 million fixed wireless subscribers at the end of last quarter.”
Verizon’s FWA internet additions in the second quarter trailed those of its top rivals.
For instance, AT&T’s latest earnings report revealed it gained 279,000 new FWA internet customers during the quarter.
While T-Mobile didn’t mention its FWA internet additions for the quarter in its most recent earnings report, T-Mobile Chief Financial Officer Peter Osvaldik revealed during an earnings call on July 23 that the company’s FWA internet service faced “another very strong quarter.”
He stated that total fiber and FWA additions were “in the upper 400,000 range.”
Research and consulting firm Recon Analytics estimates that T-Mobile added roughly 465,000 FWA internet customers during the quarter.
Verizon CEO reveals why demand is slowing for FWA internet
During an earnings call on July 24, Verizon CEO Dan Schulman said that more customers are flocking to the company’s fiber internet service than its FWA service due to its rapid fiber internet expansion.
In the second quarter, the carrier added 155,000 new fiber internet customers. This comes after it completed its $20 billion acquisition of Frontier Communications in January, which expanded Verizon’s network footprint to 31 states and Washington, D.C., reaching approximately 30 million fiber passings.
“You’re going to continue to see a mix shift towards fiber,” said Schulman. “We’re growing our own passings with that line of sight to at least 32 million home passings by the end of the year.”
“In our way of thinking, broadband is broadband,” he continued. “Where we don’t have fiber, we’ll offer FWA for a true nationwide service. Customers don’t distinguish between the two. They think about what speed are they going to get. Typically, on FWA, we’re at least 300 meg down speeds.”
He said the company is betting on its converged offerings to drive demand for its fiber and FWA internet services.
This includes its Verizon One plan, which it introduced in June. The plan offers customers combined mobile and home internet service (Fios, 5G Home Plus, or Verizon Home Internet Lite Extra) for $70 per month.
“I really like what we’re seeing with our convergence efforts here,” said Schulman. “Obviously, we’ve got lower churn, we’re seeing increased ARPA (average revenue per account) as well. It’s interesting with our Verizon One product that we just launched, well over 50% of the people signing on to Verizon One are upgrading their speed levels from that.”
“That’s incremental ARPA,” he added. “We have room to sell them more lines, more perks, that kind of thing. From a lifetime value perspective, we just want to drive as much convergence as we possibly can.”
Verizon CEO addresses rising satellite internet competition
Schulman also addressed concerns about Verizon’s FWA internet service facing growing competition from satellite internet providers such as SpaceX’s Starlink, which has attracted over 9 million internet customers since its launch in 2019.
He said it is “very difficult” for satellite internet providers to compete with Verizon’s internet offerings.
“In terms of satellite, we see no impact from satellite providers on our broadband penetration and our broadband capabilities,” said Schulman. “By the way, that’s not surprising. It is very difficult for satellite providers to provide a service that’s even close to what we can provide with our broadband services.”
Schulman highlighted that it all boils down to speed and quality, which is where he believes satellite internet providers fall behind.
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“I mean, today’s satellites, their beams cover hundreds of square miles,” he said. “Even at the very lowest broadband speeds, call it 100 meg (megabits) down and 20 up, the ceiling that they can provide service without degrading quality for everyone is very small.”
He said that Verizon’s FWA service provides faster, more reliable speeds than satellite internet providers in more rural areas.
“In suburbs and in urban areas, but let’s just call it suburbs right now, the ceiling for them before they degrade service is 10 to 40 homes passed per square mile at the lowest broadband speed, at 100 meg,” he said. “If they try and compete against FWA at 300 meg, that ceiling drops to 5 to 20 homes per square mile, versus what we can do, (which) is anywhere between 500 and 2,000.”
Schulman emphasized that Verizon’s services are “100 times to 1,000 times more efficient” than those offered by satellite providers due to “physics.”
“Our speeds and our capabilities are much higher,” he said. “It’s basically not possible, because of physics, not because of execution, but because of physics, for satellite to effectively compete against a terrestrial network in either mobility or broadband in urban and suburban geographies.”
His comments come after a CableTV.com survey last year revealed that Starlink topped consumer satisfaction ratings among internet providers, with a score of 89%. Verizon scored 79% in this category, falling behind rivals G Fiber, Ziply Fiber, Lumens, T-Mobile and AT&T.
Starlink is expected to become a bigger threat over time as it is currently upgrading its network by launching V3 satellites, which will provide customers with faster speeds, larger data capacity and lower latency.
However, a recent analysis from MoffettNathanson suggests that Starlink’s impact on competition will remain somewhat constrained, even with the deployment of V3 satellites, a change expected to take the company about five years to fully transition to.
“Starlink will continue to be best suited for, and most successful in serving, low-density markets, both in the US and globally,” said MoffettNathanson analyst Craig Moffett in the report, according to a recent report from Light Reading.
He added that Starlink “will deliver performance comparable to fixed wireless access (FWA). It will remain significantly disadvantaged versus fiber (FTTH) and Cable.”
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