Q2 - 2025 Earnings for the "Big 3" - AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile
AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon recently reported Q2/2025 earnings.
In Q2 2025, T-Mobile posted record postpaid and broadband subscriber gains, a new high in free cash flow, and raised its full-year guidance while advancing rural 5G site builds, fiber partnerships, satellite services, and of course, the closing of the acquisition of US cellular. AT&T saw solid growth in postpaid, fiber, and fixed wireless customers, lifted annual free cash flow guidance, and emphasized aggressive fiber expansion toward doubling its reach by 2030. Verizon delivered higher free cash flow and raised guidance, offsetting postpaid phone losses with broadband and FWA growth, while staying ahead of schedule on C-Band and fiber build-outs. AT&T and Verizon also underscored progress toward their respective acquisitions of Lumen and Frontier, both slated to close in 2026, signaling continued industry consolidation.
T-Mobile
+1.7M postpaid customer additions, (+ 830,000 postpaid phone net adds)
Best ever Q2 for TMUS, and best in industry
+454,000 broadband net customer additions, up 12% YOY and best in industry- leading overall industry for the 14th straight quarter
$4.6B in free cash flow (new Q2 record for TMUS)
Guidance raised $100M on low end, to ($17.6B-18B for 2025)
CAPEX expectation of $9.5B remains unchanged
Partnership with cable (Comcast & Charter) launching in 2026 targeting business customers
MetroNet joint venture for fiber was completed, along with JVX (Lumos)
Forecast of +100,000 fiber net additions, mostly in second half of 2025
US Cellular transaction closed on August 1st, 2025
Divested its 800MHZ spectrum portfolio, a nationwide band acquired in their Sprint merger, which was offered for purchase originally to DISH/Boost, to Grain Management for $2.9B, with potential upside beyond that
T-Mobile plans to bring nearly 4,000 new sites ON-AIR this year
T-Satellite, powered by SpaceX was launched
Quotable - re: Comcast & Charter Partnership:
“So good. Oh, you asked about cable. Okay. Quickly on cable. I had a lot to say about it in my prepared remarks, so I'll try to repeat it. But, look, I think this is just incremental, and we've chosen a segment, business SMB, where we really don't have a lot of exposure. You know, as I said, we're kind of have a barbell business. We're way down in very small business, where we already compete with cable, and we tend to be growing way up in enterprise a thousand and above. We don't have a lot of market share nor win share in between.”
–Mike Sievert | CEO, T-Mobile
Quotable re: T-Mobile focus on rural areas:
“So, Craig, you know, while we don't direct this from a strategy standpoint to be smaller markets in rural areas, to the premise of your question, generally, the algorithm right now is spitting out more rural areas. And so that's where most of this four thousand build is. And by the way, the net incremental keep sights taking us from nine thousand in the UScellular footprint to about twelve thousand, are also principally mostly in smaller markets in rural areas.
–Mike Sievert | CEO, T-Mobile
AT&T
+400,000 postpaid phone net adds
+243,000 AT&T Fiber adds, +203,000 AT&T Internet Air (fixed wireless) adds
$4.4B in free cashflow (up from $4.0B a year ago),
Raised yearly guidance to be $16.0B - $16.5B versus prior range of $16.0B+
Q2 - CAPEX - $5.1B
Q3 - $5.0 - $5.5B forecast
Passed 30 million fiber connections
Agreement to acquire Lumen's mass markets fiber business was announced in May, expected to close in first half 2026
Plan to increase yearly AT&T fiber adds to 4 million annual run rate by end of 2026
Continued decommission of legacy copper infrastructure, filed with FCC to discontinue service of approx. 10% of wire centers across 17 states
Quotable re: AT&T focus on fiber investment
“As a result of our stepped-up investment, we now expect that by the end of 2030, we'll reach approximately 50 million customer locations and reach more than 60 million fiber locations when including the Lumen Mass Markets fiber assets we've agreed to acquire,our Gigapower joint venture and agreements with other commercial open accessproviders. This would double our fiber reach from more than 30 million total locations, amilestone we reached ahead of schedule during the second quarter.”
John Stankey | CEO, AT&T
Quotable re: Current Business and Federal Policy
"Investment and policy tailwinds are as strong as I can remember since maybe the Telecommunications Act of 1996. We're significantly expanding where we're able to offer next-generation 5G and fiber connectivity services, allowing us to provide exceptional customer experiences that are more efficient to run and maintain."
John Stankey | CEO, AT&T
Quotable re: Spectrum
"To be sure, spectrum is a lifeblood of our wireless business. We've always invested in it strategically. We always have been very satisfied with the decisions we've made on investment there, and I don't expect that to change."
John Stankey | CEO, AT&T
Verizon
Net additions of 300,000 (including mobility and broadband)
Net loss of 51,000 for postpaid phone
$5.2B in free cash flow, $8.8B year to date for first half 2025, +3.6% increase over first half of 2024
Range raised to $19.5B - $20.5B
The increase is driven by an estimated benefit of $1.5 billion to $2 billion from the recently enacted tax legislation, as well as the disciplined operational execution that drove our strong adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow performance in the first half of the year.
$8B Capex for first half 2025, down slightly from $8.1B in prior year as Fios and C-band achieved efficiencies
C-Band (mid-band) deployment - ahead of schedule, to reach 80-90% of planned sites by year end
Fiber build - on pace for 650,000 annually
Frontier Transaction - on track for Q1/2026 close - received regulatory approval for the Frontier acquisition from eight states, FCC, and DOJ, and remains "on track for an early 2026 close."
On track for goal of 8-9 million FWA (Fixed Wireless Access) subscribers by 2028
Quotable re: Spectrum
“When it comes to spectrum, I mean, I think that what we have we're sitting on a really good position on spectrum, and we have C-band, millimeter wave, or low band, and that's what you see are deploying right now. So we feel good about where we are with spectrum. Then I've said all the time that the U.S. all the time needs more spectrum, especially as 6G comes up, etcetera, in order to stay competitive. And being the most digitalized country in the world. So we're, of course, thinking it's good that's part of the bill, but as you rightfully said, it still needs to be optional."
Hans Vestburg | CEO, Verizon