Verizon is struggling to shake off a consumer trend that continues to grow, especially after the phone carrier issued several price increases over the past year for its services. The increases have understandably angered customers.
In its third-quarter earnings report for 2025, Verizon reported a net loss of 7,000 postpaid phone customers during the quarter as churn reached 0.91%, compared to an addition of 18,000 postpaid phone customers during the same period in 2024.
The customer loss follows Verizon’s decision to make several crucial price changes to its wireless services in recent months.
Verizon’s price increases are angering customers. Image source: Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images
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February: Verizon increased monthly rates for myPlan and New Verizon Plan accounts from $3 to $5, citing “rising operating costs.”
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March: Verizon increased the monthly price of its Verizon Mobile Protect Multi-Device plan and Verizon Mobile Secure Multi-Device plan by $8.
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August: Verizon’s device activation fee increased from $35 to $40.
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September: Several price changes came into effect.
Verizon increased its tablet plans by $5 to $10, depending on the plan. Verizon’s telecommunications administrative and recovery fee increased nearly 30 cents, while Verizon’s regulatory charge increased 3 cents. Renewable loyalty discounts, which typically ranged from $10 to $40, were also discontinued.
As these changes were implemented throughout the year, many Verizon customers became increasingly frustrated with the company and threatened to sever ties. Verizon has launched several offers and discounts, as well as a new three-year fixed price guarantee, to try to win back customers; however, their attrition rate continued to increase throughout the year.
Amid its customers’ struggles, on October 6, Verizon named Dan Schulman as the company’s new CEO, replacing Hans Vestberg.
During an earnings conference call on Oct. 29, Schulman said Verizon is “clearly not meeting” its potential.
“We are not generating the returns that our investors expect for shareholders,” Schulman said. “Despite investing significantly in network leadership, we have not been able to translate that into winning in the market.”
He also said there are four reasons why Verizon is losing customers: price increases, friction in the customer experience, negative perception of value and intense competition in the telecommunications industry.
Related: Verizon Angers Customers with New Tactic to Increase Loyalty
Schulman emphasized that Verizon needs to “aggressively transform” its culture and financial profile by becoming more “customer-centric and executing with financial discipline with a focus on shareholder value.” He also admitted that the recent price increases were a bad idea.
“Over the past several years, our financial growth has been overly dependent on price increases; a strategic approach that is overly reliant on price without subscriber growth is not a sustainable strategy,” Schulman said. “Each year, it becomes more difficult to grow as we overcome price increases and experience increased turnover. This cannot continue, and there is no question that significant change is needed.”
His comments come at a time when many Americans are looking for cheaper phone plan options while facing price increases for phone services.
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The average cost of an unlimited data plan for American families is $244 per month.
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About 42% of Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T customers have seen their phone bills inflate over the past year, which is 7% higher than average.
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On 83.2 million American households overspend on phone plans every year.
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Also, 58% of Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T customers are considering transposed to a different telephone operator as their services become more expensive.
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All three telephone operators risk losing a combined profit 230 million customers due to the high price of mobile plans.
Source: WhistleOut
Telephone operators are also fighting growing competition from cable television companies, which have been offering consumers bundled telephone, Internet and television services at discounted prices. Many customers have flocked to these offers.
Recent data from MoffettNathanson, shared by Light Reading, found that Spectrum, Comcast and Altice USA added 886,000 new phone customers during the first quarter of 2025, an increase from the 804,000 they added during the same quarter of 2024.
To attract and retain customers, Schulman said Verizon’s primary goal will be to “build loyalty and drive significant improvements in retention.”
“We need to make it much easier to do business with us,” Schulman said. “Expect bold execution driven by sophisticated and intelligent marketing, actions that strengthen loyalty, and the elimination of practices and processes that detract from the customer experience. Raising rates without corresponding value rarely, if ever, delights customers.”
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He also said Verizon’s transformation will not be about “promotional activities that can be quickly imitated.”
“This is true innovation, which our competitors cannot easily replicate,” he said.
Schulman also doubled down on the company’s plans to use AI-driven innovation to “transform” the “customer experience.”
“I intend to use AI as a key tool to simplify offerings, improve customer experience and reduce churn through smart, consistent and more personalized offers and marketing,” he said. “And we will leverage AI across the company to make it easier for our employees to delight our customers and dramatically improve service by reducing costs and complexity in the vast majority of our business processes.”
He also warned that all these changes “will not happen overnight and there is no miracle solution.” For Verizon to win, he said, “it will take hard work, strategic focus and careful execution.”
In a statement to TheStreet, Dominick Miserandino, CEO of RTMNexus, said it is essential that Verizon’s CEO implement a plan that improves the customer experience to reverse high employee turnover at the company.
“You can build the best 5G network in the world, but if the customer feels that prices are going up and it’s a headache, people will leave,” Miserandino said. “Their plan is not about another marketing push; it’s about making Verizon simpler, faster and easier to deal with. Customers don’t want to play games, they just want a plan that works and not have to deal with the technical side of it.”
Related: AT&T suffers an alarming problem with its customers
This story was originally reported by TheStreet on November 1, 2025, where it first appeared in the Retail section. Add TheStreet as a preferred source by clicking here.