Verizon Communications Inc.

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Verizon sells wireless service and related products through its stores, authorized retailers, and online.

© Niyi Fote—ZUMA Press, Inc./Alamy

Verizon Communications Inc. is a U.S. telecommunications company based in New York City. Founded in 2000 through the merger of Bell Atlantic and GTE Corporation, Verizon provides wireless service, broadband Internet, and related communications services to consumers, businesses, and institutional customers in the United States and select international markets. Its shares trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol VZ.

Since its formation, Verizon has expanded primarily through acquisitions and the construction of wireless and fiber-optic networks, including nationwide mobile systems and its FiOS fiber network.

Verizon’s business consists of two major segments:

Verizon has long been known for emphasizing network quality, particularly in wireless service, and has typically priced its products and services higher than those of some competitors. That approach has helped support a reputation for reliability, but it has also required heavy spending, especially on wireless spectrum (the radio frequencies carriers need to run their networks). As a result, Verizon has carried substantial debt tied in part to large spectrum purchases made to support its network expansion.

Verizon’s history traces back to the 1982 antitrust settlement that led to the breakup of AT&T’s Bell System. In 1984, the company’s local telephone operations were divided among seven regional carriers—Bell Atlantic, NYNEX, Ameritech, Pacific Telesis, BellSouth, Southwestern Bell, and U.S. West—known as the Baby Bells.

Verizon’s direct predecessor was Bell Atlantic Corporation, which provided local telephone service in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia.

After passage of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which loosened regulatory restrictions in the industry, Bell Atlantic merged with NYNEX, extending its service territory into New York state and New England and giving the combined company control of phone systems in many of the country’s largest metropolitan markets.

In the late 1990s, Bell Atlantic and GTE Corporation were two of the largest local telephone companies in the United States. Bell Atlantic served much of the Northeast, while GTE operated local telephone networks in 29 states and had a significant wireless business.

Seeking to expand geographic reach and scale at a time of rapid consolidation in the telecommunications industry, the companies agreed to merge in 1998. The $60 billion transaction closed in 2000 after an extended regulatory review. The combined company, named Verizon Communications Inc., began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol VZ. Verizon is a portmanteau of veritas (Latin for “truth”) and horizon.

Bell Atlantic shareholders held a majority stake in the combined company, but governance and leadership were initially shared. Ivan Seidenberg became chief executive officer.

During this period, Bell Atlantic agreed to form a national wireless joint venture with Vodafone, then the world’s largest mobile operator. Announced in 1999, the venture combined the U.S. wireless assets of Bell Atlantic, Vodafone’s AirTouch, and PrimeCo under a single business, later named Verizon Wireless.

When the Bell Atlantic–GTE merger closed in 2000, GTE’s wireless operations were added to the joint venture. Verizon held a majority ownership stake and management control. As cell phone use expanded rapidly in the early 2000s, Verizon Wireless became an increasingly important part of the company’s business.

In early 2002, Verizon launched the first third-generation (3G) wireless network service in the U.S., initially rolling out service in several major metropolitan areas. The new network made it possible to offer higher-speed mobile data services alongside traditional voice calling and Internet access.

In 2006, Verizon acquired MCI Communications Corporation, a major long-distance and business communications provider with extensive government and international operations, giving Verizon ownership of a nationwide long-distance network. Following the $8.5 billion acquisition, the legacy MCI business was reorganized as Verizon Business.

In 2004, Verizon launched FiOS, a fiber-optic network for delivering high-speed Internet and television services. At a time when many households and businesses relied on dial-up or digital subscriber line (DSL) connections, FiOS offered the promise of far higher speeds, greater reliability, and more capacity for data transmission than existing telephone and cable networks.

Because Verizon couldn’t use existing wiring to connect homes and businesses, building the FiOS network required substantial initial costs and years of construction. By 2010, after spending roughly $23 billion on rolling out FiOS, the company stopped expanding the service to new cities, continuing instead to complete existing projects and add customers in markets where FiOS was already available. Verizon said the decision reflected the high cost of further expansion and the financial strain of extending the network beyond its existing footprint.

At the same time, Verizon began reducing its legacy wireline business, particularly in rural and less densely populated areas. The company sold or spun off local telephone operations in several states (including large portions of California, Florida, and Texas) to Frontier Communications, and wireline networks in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont to FairPoint Communications.

The divestments were controversial. Customers in affected areas were often angry, arguing that Verizon was walking away from aging phone and broadband networks and leaving them in the hands of smaller providers that lacked the financial resources to maintain and upgrade them. In several states, service disruptions, billing problems, and extended outages during and after the transitions appeared to confirm those fears.

Verizon’s decisions to build fiber networks and sell off parts of its traditional landline business reflected a strategy to focus on wireless service while keeping landline networks mainly in markets where fiber had been built.

In 2010, the company began rolling out fourth-generation long term evolution (4G LTE) service, which significantly increased mobile data speeds and capacity compared with earlier networks and supported the rapid growth of smartphone use.

After leading Verizon through its early expansion, Ivan Seidenberg stepped down as CEO in 2011 and was succeeded by Lowell C. McAdam as part of a planned leadership transition.

In 2013, Verizon agreed to buy Vodafone’s minority stake in Verizon Wireless for about $130 billion, giving the company full ownership of its wireless business and access to all of the unit’s cash flow and earnings.

In the mid-2010s, Verizon moved beyond telecommunications into digital media and advertising, betting that online content and ad-technology businesses could complement its wireless operations and provide a new source of growth.

In 2015, Verizon agreed to buy AOL for about $4.4 billion, acquiring digital media brands that included The Huffington Post and TechCrunch and advertising technology intended to support mobile video and targeted advertising.

The following year, Verizon struck a separate deal to acquire Yahoo Inc.’s core Internet business. The original purchase price of roughly $4.8 billion was later reduced by $350 million to about $4.48 billion, after Yahoo disclosed two massive data breaches affecting hundreds of millions of user accounts. The transaction closed in 2017.

Verizon combined AOL and Yahoo under a single media unit initially called Oath, later renamed Verizon Media, that aimed to build a digital advertising business that could compete in a market dominated by Google and Facebook. The effort fell short of those ambitions. In 2021, Verizon sold Verizon Media to Apollo Global Management, a money management firm, ending its push into digital media and returning its focus to its core telecommunications businesses.

In 2018, Verizon named Hans Vestberg as CEO. Vestberg, who had previously run the telecommunications equipment maker Ericsson, moved Verizon away from its push into digital media and back toward its core business of building and operating networks. In October 2025, Dan Schulman was named CEO, succeeding Vestberg.

During this period Verizon spent heavily on expanding its wireless network for 5G, the next generation of mobile service, which offered faster speeds and the ability to support many more connected devices than earlier networks. Verizon also bought TracFone Wireless for about $6.3 billion, acquiring a mobile carrier that sells service in advance rather than through long-term contracts, adding millions of customers.

Verizon also once again turned to expanding fiber. In 2024, the company agreed to acquire Frontier Communications, which had previously bought large portions of Verizon’s wireline business and later built extensive fiber networks in those markets.

The deal closed in 2025 after the Federal Communications Commission approved the transaction, with Verizon agreeing to changes in its corporate policies, including ending its diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. The acquisition allowed Verizon to integrate Frontier’s fiber systems into its broader network and use them to support both residential broadband and its growing 5G wireless business.

Verizon’s focus on wireless and fiber came as competition intensified. Cable companies increasingly challenged phone companies in home broadband by bundling Internet service with TV and wireless plans, while wireless rivals expanded mid-band 5G coverage, narrowing performance gaps that once set Verizon’s service apart from the competition.

Over four decades, Verizon grew from a regional telephone company into a national provider of wireless and network services. That shift was driven largely by acquisitions and by years of spending to build and upgrade networks, including fiber-optic systems and wireless infrastructure, much of it financed through costly spectrum purchases. Those efforts were often slow to deliver returns, but they defined the company’s long-term direction and scale.