Verizon Vs. AT&T: How The Carrier Giants Fared In Q3 2025

Verizon’s new CEO took to the earnings call to promise big changes, while business services revenue continued to disappoint for both carriers in the third quarter of the year.

The two largest telecom giants in the country over the last week have announced their third-quarter 2025 earnings, with both companies missing Wall Street analyst predictions on revenue but still posting overall positive earnings and strong wireless results.

Up first was AT&T with a 1.6 percent increase in total operating revenue. Verizon a week later reported a 315 percent increase in total revenue year-over-year. But while the telecom reported third-quarter adjusted earnings that topped Wall Street targets, revenue missed expectations amid Verizon’s sudden CEO changeup.

Verizon in October appointed former PayPal CEO Dan Schulman as its new CEO, replacing Hans Vestberg, the company’s leader for the last eight years. Schulman, for his part, promised big changes during the carrier’s Q3 2025 earnings call on Wednesday.

“We will aggressively transform our culture, our cost structure, and the financial profile of Verizon in order to put our customers first, compete effectively, and deliver sustainable returns for our shareholders,” Schulman said in a statement.

Financial promises aside, it wasn’t all bright spots on the balance sheet for either company. Verizon and AT&T continued to see their business segments slip, with Verizon Business’ overall operating revenue falling by 2.8 percent and AT&T’s Business wireline services experiencing a steeper decline of 7.8 percent during the most recent quarter.

Then there were the acquisitions. Verizon expects to close on its $20 billion Frontier Communications deal in early 2026, while AT&T plans to become the new owner of Lumen’s 11-state mass market fiber-to-home business in the same timeframe early next year.

With revenue growth in the green, coupled with disappointing business services revenues, planned acquisitions and one new CEO, here are the financial results from the two leading telecom giants in Q3 2025.

Business Services

AT&T’s Business wireline services, which includes advanced Ethernet-based fiber services, fixed wireless services, IP voice and managed professional services for business customers, continued to decline in Q3 2025. The segment decreased 7.8 percent during the quarter to $4.25 billion and business wireline equipment declined 1.1 percent to $187 million during the third quarter. Legacy and other transitional services declined 17.3 percent to $2.21 billion. Business fiber and advanced connectivity services, the latter of which makes up about one-third of the segment’s revenue, on the other hand, climbed 6 percent to $1.85 billion.

Verizon also saw operating revenue for its business services decline to the tune of 2.8 percent year over year, with revenues of $7.14 billion compared to $7.35 billion a year ago. Verizon Business includes the company’s Enterprise, Business Markets, and public sector and wholesale businesses. Enterprise and public sector continued to decline, falling 6.4 percent during the third quarter to $3.31 billion compared with $3.59 billion a year ago. Business Markets and other revenue rose 2.7 percent during the third quarter to $3.35 billion compared with $3.26 billion in the year-ago period. Wholesale revenue fell 12.9 percent to $479 million during third-quarter 2025 from $550 million one year before.

Wireless Results

Dallas-based AT&T’s mobility services revenue continued to climb, rising 3.1 percent to $21.71 billion, up from $21.05 billion a year ago. Mobility equipment revenue also rose 6.1 percent to $4.79 billion during the quarter compared with $4.51 billion a year ago. AT&T said it added an impressive 405,000 postpaid phone net additions during the third quarter.

Verizon saw its consumer wireless service revenue climb 2.4 percent to $17.44 billion, up from $17.04 billion in the year ago quarter. Verizon Business wireless service revenue in third-quarter 2025 was $3.38 billion, an increase of 0.7 percent year-over-year for a combined $21 billion in overall wireless service revenues, an increase of 2.1 percent compared to the year earlier. However, the company said it lost 7,000 wireless postpaid phone business and consumer subscribers during the quarter due to intensified competition. Verizon Business, on the other hand, reported 51,000 postpaid phone net additions. At the same time, Verizon also said it added 261,000 fixed wireless net additions, bringing the base to nearly 5.4 million fixed wireless access subscribers.

Q3 2025 Financials

Total operating revenue for AT&T’s third quarter that ended September 30 was $30.71 billion versus $30.21 billion in the year-ago quarter, up 1.6 percent, which the carrier attributed to higher Mobility, Consumer Wireline and Mexico revenues, partially offset by a decline in Business Wireline. Net income was $9.67 billion. Diluted earnings per share during AT&T’s second quarter was $1.29 compared to 3 cents a year ago. AT&T’s third-quarter 2025 results missed Wall Street’s expectations of $30.87 billion for the quarter.

For the quarter that ended September 30, Verizon’s total operating revenue was $33.82 billion versus $33.30 billion in the year-ago quarter, up 1.5 percent. Net income was $5.06 billion. Diluted earnings per share during Verizon’s third quarter was $1.17 compared to 78 cents a year ago. Verizon’s Q3 2025 revenue missed Wall Street targets of $34.28 billion but beat earnings per share estimations of $1.19.

Acquisition Progress

Confirmed in May 21 by both companies, Lumen Technologies revealed its plan to offload its 11-state Mass Markets fiber internet business for $5.75 billion in cash to AT&T in a deal set to close in the first half of 2026. via the terms of the deal, AT&T will get about 95 percent of Quantum Fiber, about 4 million fiber locations and about 1 million subscribers. Lumen will keep enterprise fiber customers and mass market copper-based customers, the companies said. The transaction is still subject to certain regulatory and other customary closing conditions.

AT&T is also acquiring approximately 30 MHz of nationwide 3.45 GHz mid-band spectrum and approximately 20 MHz of nationwide 600 MHz low-band spectrum for approximately $23 billion in cash from EchoStar. The deal, first announced in August, is also expected to close in the first half of 2026 and is subject to certain closing conditions, including regulatory approvals, the telecom said.

Meanwhile, Verizon’s deal to acquire Frontier Communications for $20 billion in cash is expected to close in early 2026 after receiving approval from the FCC in May, according to the Basking Ridge, N.J.-based carrier.