American wireless and telecom giant Verizon, continuing its aggressive cost-cutting, will sell 274 company-owned retail locations, apart from cutting about 500 corporate jobs to further restructure its organisation.
The moves will affect about 3,000 retail and corporate employees. After the conclusion of the sale, effective August 16, Verizon will own 1,000 stores. The telecom giant eliminated several hundred jobs in May 2026 after announcing in November 2025 it was cutting more than 13,000 jobs in its largest single round of layoffs.
“Previously, about 70% of employees at retail locations that Verizon sold took jobs with the new companies operating the stores. Six large operators run most of Verizon’s franchised stores,” Verizon said.
In a note to its employees, Verizon said, “We have been working with franchise owners that operate 5,000 outlets to elevate the experience in every one of their locations because we know how important they are to our overall customer experience.”
As part of its restructuring, in November 2025, Verizon sold 179 corporate-owned retail stores to franchise operators and closed one store. The telecom major even named Dan Schulman, its board member since 2018, as CEO in October last year.
“We’re fundamentally reshaping Verizon inside and out to put the customer at the centre of everything we do. We’re listening, designing for them, and moving faster than we ever have before,” Schulman said in April.
Verizon is currently competing with AT&T and T-Mobile in the saturated American telecom market, where network providers have extended device subsidies, added plan discounts and increased network infrastructure spending.
It is now aiming to attract customers by offering simpler plans, apart from dropping activation and upgrade fees and unveiling a new loyalty programme offering discounts and perks.
The new package is offering customers 3% back on bills that can be used toward new phones or at consumer brands like Sephora, Hilton, Marriott, and Starbucks. The USD 40 activation fee, which Verizon raised from USD 35 recently, and the USD 40 upgrade fee, which comes during switching to a new device, have been eliminated.
However, customers will need to sign up for Verizon’s new free loyalty programme to benefit from the fee removal. The programme draws obvious comparisons to T-Mobile Tuesdays, which has been in operation for a decade.
Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile agreed in May 2026 to form a joint venture to address coverage gaps, especially in the United States’ rural areas, with satellite-based technologies.