Verizon is struggling to shake a consumer trend that continues to grow legs, especially after the phone carrier issued several price hikes 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 time period in 2024.

The loss of customers follows Verizon’s decision to make several crucial pricing changes for its wireless services over the past few months.

Verizon’s price hikes are angering customers.

Image source: Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Verizon’s top price changes for wireless in 2025: 

  • February: Verizon hiked the monthly rates for myPlan and New Verizon Plan accounts by $3 to $5, citing “rising operational costs.”
  • March: Verizon increased the monthly price of its Verizon Mobile Protect Multi-Device plan and Verizon Mobile Secure Multi-Device plan by $8.
  • August: Verizon’s device activation fee rose from $35 to $40.
  • September: Several pricing changes went into effect.
    Verizon hiked its tablet plans by $5 to $10, depending on the plan.

    Verizon’s Administrative and Telco Recovery fee increased by almost 30 cents, while the Verizon Regulatory Charge spiked by 3 cents.

    Renewable loyalty discounts, which typically ranged from $10 to $40, were also discontinued.  

As these changes rolled out throughout the year, many Verizon customers grew increasingly frustrated with the company and threatened to sever ties. Verizon has launched several deals and discounts, as well as a new three-year price lock guarantee, to try to win back customers; however, its churn rate continued to elevate throughout the year. 

New Verizon CEO flags reasons why customers are leaving

Amid its customer struggles, on Oct. 6, Verizon named Dan Schulman as the new CEO of the company, replacing Hans Vestberg.

During an earnings call on Oct. 29, Schulman said that Verizon is “clearly falling short” of its potential.

“We are not delivering the shareholder returns our investors expect,” said Schulman. “Despite investing significantly in network leadership, we have not been able to translate that into winning in the market.”

He also said that there are four reasons why Verizon is losing customers: price increases, friction in the customer experience, negative value perception and intense competition in the telecom industry. 

Related: Verizon angers customers with new tactic to boost loyalty

Schulman emphasized that Verizon needs to “aggressively transform” its culture and financial profile by being more “customer-centric and executing with financial discipline with a focus on shareholder value.” He also admitted that recent price hikes were a bad idea. 

“For the past few years, our financial growth has relied too heavily on price increases, a strategic approach that relies too much on price without subscriber growth is not a sustainable strategy,” said Schulman. “Every year, it gets harder to grow as we lap past price increases and experience higher churn. This cannot continue, and there is no question that meaningful change is needed.”

His comments come during a time when many Americans are seeking cheaper phone plan options as they face price increases for phone services. 

How higher phone bills are impacting Americans:

  • The average cost of an unlimited data plan for American families is $244 a month.
  • About 42% of Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T customers have seen their phone bills inflate in the past year, which is 7% higher than average. 
  • Over 83.2 million U.S. households overspend on phone plans every year.
  • Also, 58% of Verizon, T-Mobile and AT&T customers are considering switching to a different phone carrier as their services become more expensive. 
  • All three phone carriers risk losing a combined 230 million customers due to high mobile plan pricing.
    Source: WhistleOut

Phone carriers are also battling growing competition from cable TV companies, which have been offering consumers bundled phone, internet and TV services at discounted prices. Many customers have been flocking 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 in 2024.

The Verizon CEO has a plan to win back customers 

To attract and retain customers, Schulman said that Verizon’s main goal will be “to build loyalty and drive significant improvements in retention.” 

“We must make it much easier to do business with us,” said Schulman. “You should expect bold execution powered by sophisticated and smart 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 that Verizon’s transformation will not be “about promotional activities that can be quickly imitated.”

“It is about true innovation, not easily replicated by our competitors,” he said.

Schulman also doubled down on the company’s plans to use innovation powered by artificial intelligence to “transform” the “customer experience.”

“I intend to use AI as a key tool to simplify offers, improve the customer experience and reduce churn through smart, consistent and more personalized marketing and offers,” he said. “And we will leverage AI throughout the company to make it easier for our employees to delight our customers and to dramatically improve service of reducing cost and complexity across the vast majority of our business processes.”

He also warned that all of these changes “will not happen overnight, and there’s no one silver bullet.” For Verizon to win, he said, “it will require hard work, strategic focus and thoughtful execution.”

In a statement to TheStreet, Dominick Miserandino, CEO of RTMNexus, said it is essential for Verizon’s CEO to implement a plan that enhances the customer experience to reverse elevated churn at the company. 

“You can build the best 5G network in the world, but if the customer feels prices are going up and it’s a headache, people are going to leave,” said Miserandino. “His plan isn’t about another marketing push; it’s about making Verizon simpler, faster, and easier to deal with. Customers don’t want to play games but just want a plan that works and not to deal with the technical side of it.”

Related: AT&T is suffering from an alarming customer problem