Verizon Signs US$1bn Deal to Connect Google’s Data Centres

Verizon has signed a deal worth more than US$1bn with Google to connect its data centres with Verizon’s dark fibre. 

Verizon’s CEO, Dan Schulman, disclosed details of the agreement during the company’s Q2 2026 earnings conference call. 

Dan stressed the importance of the deal, as “it foreshadows where our revenue growth profile is going from here”, and said that Verizon expects to announce similar deals by the end of 2026, which together will be worth “multiple billions of dollars in revenue over the next several years".

"These are long-duration, high-quality contracted revenue streams from some of the most demanding infrastructure customers in the world.”

He said that “this is just the beginning”, pointing to the sheer scale of the AI infrastructure build-out across the US and saying that “Verizon is uniquely positioned to participate in it.”

“We own one of the most extensive long-haul and metro fibre footprints in North America. We have spent decades building the kind of carrier-grade, low-latency, highly resilient transport network that hyperscalers need to connect compute to compute, model to model and region to region.

“We built that infrastructure for a different era, but it has turned out to be exactly the right asset for this one.”

Inference at the network edge

Dan added that Verizon has begun the process of converting many of its central offices into data centres for inference edge computing and that it is already speaking with multiple partners “who are eager to utilise these power-ready and permitted locations".

“The agreements we have signed are the leading edge of a strategy that will become a meaningful incremental leg of growth for Verizon. We expect this initiative to noticeably contribute to our revenue growth starting next year and to grow substantially from there.”

He said that Verizon’s “core business is accelerating and a new revenue growth vector arrives on top of it next year".

“This is a very different revenue growth profile than Verizon has had in a very long time, and it is the foundation of why we believe that we are at the beginning of a multi-year growth story,” Dan explained. 

Subscriber growth accelerates

Switching to Verizon’s results, the operator raised its full-year guidance for the second consecutive quarter. It also reported 184,000 postpaid phone net additions and consolidated adjusted EBITDA of US$13.7bn for Q2 2026.

Verizon secured more than 550,000 total mobility and broadband net additions during the quarter – up more than 230,000 compared to the same period in 2025.

For broadband, Verizon recorded 348,000 net additions, including 193,000 fixed wireless access (FWA) connections and 155,000 fibre broadband connections.

Consolidated financial results

Verizon’s consolidated adjusted EBITDA increased 7.2% YoY to US$13.7bn, a company record.

Consolidated adjusted EBITDA margin grew to 40.1, while free cash flow reached US$6.4bn for the quarter, up 24.4% YoY, assisting the operator in returning US$9.4bn to shareholders in the first half of the year.

However, total operating revenue dipped slightly by 0.7% year-over-year to US$34.3bn due to a decline in equipment revenue, and net income fell by 22.9% to US$3.9bn. 

The latter was mostly due to US$1.8bn in pre-tax special items including severance charges and a US$746m loss on the disposition of its international wireline connectivity and managed network services business.

Operational transformation plans

“We’re putting customers at the centre of every decision we make,” said Dan in a statement accompanying the results.

“With recent updates including our new Simplicity plans, Verizon One converged offerings, and an industry-leading loyalty program, we are gaining subscribers and earning long-term retention based on real value rather than subsidised promotions.

According to Dan’s comments during the earnings call, Simplicity is a US$45 plan “with our best network performance. One plan, one price, no games.” 

He added that Verizon is separating phone subsidies from its wireless pricing to improve transparency, flexibility and choice for customers, along with Verizon’s margins. 

Verizon One is the company’s national converged (fixed and mobile) US$70 plan, with “integrated servicing across both products”.

“Our second-quarter results provide clear, compelling evidence that this transformation is driving a structural inflection point across our entire business,” Dan said in the statement

“We are accelerating across our key metrics, achieving a step-change in churn reduction while lowering our customer acquisition and retention costs.

“By compounding lower churn with healthier unit economics, we have generated the strongest operating position we have seen in years.”