Inside Dan Schulman’s war on the old Verizon
At his first companywide meeting after becoming Verizon’s CEO in October 2025, Dan Schulman dispensed with the usual corporate pleasantries.
Key points
- On this episode of Fortune 500: Titans and Disruptors of Industry, Fortune Editor-in-Chief Alyson Shontell speaks with Verizon CEO Dan Schulman to discuss why he is finished with handing out free phones, the company’s 2,000+ internal initiatives, and how Verizon is preparing for Elon Musk’s potential entrance into the industry.
- As if Verizon’s existing challenges weren’t daunting enough, Elon Musk’s company, SpaceX, purchased an $8 billion portfolio of low-band cellular spectrum licenses in October, a move that lays the groundwork to compete more directly with traditional wireless giants.
- The results offer a promising snapshot, but Schulman is attempting something far more ambitious than a rebound in subscriber growth: He is trying to dismantle decades of ingrained habits at one of America’s largest companies, forcing his near-93,300 employees to think differently, take risks, and move faster.
(Adding insult to injury, Marcarelli resurfaced in 2016 as pitchman for rival Sprint, this time touting its network.) Just over a year into Schulman’s tenure, Verizon is showing early signs of a turnaround.
Additional details
- But as its peers have narrowed the gap in network quality, the advantage that once let Verizon command a premium is becoming a baseline expectation for any major wireless carrier.
- Good.” The commercials featured a bespectacled Verizon employee, played by actor Paul Marcarelli, roaming the country and testing his service in remote locations.
- “Customers don’t want to pay for a great network; that’s the expectation,” says Kevin Zavaglia, Verizon’s chief commercial officer for sales and service.
- In the first three quarters of 2025, Verizon’s consumer business lost a net 414,000 postpaid phone lines, including 356,000 in the first quarter alone.
- A great network is no longer enough For years, Verizon summed up its pitch to American consumers in a familiar TV refrain: “Can you hear me now?
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