Verizon CEO Dan Schulman is maintaining the operator’s fiber and AI-fueled reformation, hinting that it was open to more fiber acquisition possibilities and touting robust AI-related network cost savings.

Schulman told analysts during Verizon’s latest earnings call that the carrier was still on track to hit 32 million fiber passings by the end of the year, with opportunities for inorganic expansion.

“We're looking at more partnerships, potential acquisitions, to speed the number of homes passed,” Schulman said. “There's no question we think that fiber is a key differentiator against competitors who don't have it.”

Schulman’s fiber appetite comes on the heels of reports that rival T-Mobile US was eyeing the acquisition of Uniti Group’s fiber assets, a deal that would build on that carrier’s already closed joint venture agreements of Lumos and Metronet. Fellow telecom giant AT&T also recently completed its own expansion through the acquisition of Lumen Technologies’ consumer fiber business.

Verizon is itself still digesting its recently closed $20 billion purchase of Frontier Communications, which concluded earlier this year. That deal, which was initially announced in mid-2024, includes a fiber networking business with 7.2 million fiber locations that serves 2.2 million subscribers across 25 states.

Those assets are set to bolster Verizon’s approximately 7.4 million legacy fiber connections across nine states and Washington, D.C., with a combined entity counting approximately 10 million fiber customers across 31 states and Washington, D.C., and fiber networks passing more than 25 million premises.

Verizon’s broadband focus has also included quick agreements with Tillman affiliate Eaton Fiber to expand fiber services outside of Verizon’s core markets and plans to acquire fixed-wireless broadband provider Starry in a move to expand the carrier’s multidwelling unit (MDU) aspirations.

Schulman noted that Verizon’s fiber focus is being targeted at bolstering its network underpinnings both for direct broadband expansion but also to help support its 5G-based fixed-wireless access (FWA) service. That service added 214,000 new connections during the first-quarter of this year, pushing that total connection base to just past six million total connections.

However, Schulman did hint at a future focus toward fiber connections due to better cost efficiencies.

“Fiber has inherent advantages over FWA and we're going to prioritize it where we have coverage, and therefore you should expect a mix shift from where we’ve previously been,” Schulman explained, though he did add that FWA would remain in focus and that Verizon was not diminishing plans to have between eight million and nine million FWA subs by 2028.

AI-fueled network overhaul showing results, opportunities

Schulman also touted broad progress tied to sweeping operational and financial mandates he instituted when he replaced former CEO Hans Vestberg late last year. This included claims of “running cleaner” following completion of the 13,000 job cuts at the end of the quarter and initial cost savings from a stronger AI focus.

Verizon took nearly $2 billion in charges late last year tied to the job cuts, and Schulman has hinted that the carrier would look to further slash underperforming operations. Those savings are being reinvested into AI systems that are being deeply deployed across Verizon’s operations.

That investment is already sowing a return from Verizon’s network.

“We already have over $200 million of energy savings as a result of deploying AI into the network and looking how we can optimize on energy,” Schulman said. “And we're doing things now at industrial scale, and so quite pleased with the amount of progress we've made in a short period of time.”

Verizon CFO Tony Skiadas during the earnings call further noted the carrier has already started to reap financial benefits of its fiber integration and network upgrade efforts as it continues to “decommission legacy elements in the network.”

“That includes copper and recycling that copper and also monetizing that copper, as well as optimizing our third-party access cost with our larger footprint, and there's a lot more we can do here when you think about Frontier coming into the fold,” Skiadas said.

That copper angle could be significant, highlighted by AT&T’s recent claim that it experienced more than 10,000 “copper theft incidents” last year, hits that were cumulatively valued to the tune of $82 million.

Some of that opportunity is coming from Verizon’s commercial business, where Schulman said the carrier is in “deep discussions right now with hyperscalers, with alternative cloud providers, large enterprises to integrate our fiber, both dark and lit, and our 5G assets to support their AI infrastructure efforts.

“And that can include data center connectivity, ability to help them with their training and inference, and that is the potential for multibillions in revenue,” Schulman added, hinting, “we'll have more specifics on that in the next three to six months.”

Schulman noted these opportunities were tied to the world “moving toward edge computing, toward data connectivity, and we are in a real good place to play inside that AI infrastructure revolution that’s going on.”

That positioning could be attributed to former CEO Hans Vestberg, who tilted Verizon toward that edge computing axis early on the deployment of its 5G network, a process that Vestberg repeatedly said was ahead of its time and an investment that might have ultimately helped lead to his unceremonious departure.