Verizon’s board has tapped Dan Schulman — the long-time payments executive and former PayPal boss who’s been one of Verizon’s independent directors — to take the reins as CEO, marking what the company is calling the start of its “next phase” after years spent building out 5G. The appointment was announced on Monday; Schulman assumes the job immediately, and Hans Vestberg, who led the company through its 5G push, will stay on as a special adviser through October 4, 2026, to help with the transition.

This is both a symbolic and practical shift. Vestberg’s tenure (he became CEO in 2018) is closely tied to big network investments — Verizon was one of the first major U.S. carriers to roll out 5G at scale — and to a broader pivot into fiber and enterprise services. But investors and the board are clearly signaling they want new leadership to translate that infrastructure work into steadier revenue growth and market momentum.

Schulman is a known quantity in corporate America: after decades in telecom and financial-services roles — stints at AT&T, American Express, Priceline and Virgin Mobile — he became PayPal’s CEO in 2014 and helped steer the company through its post-eBay era and a blistering run of growth during the pandemic years. He left PayPal’s board at the end of 2023 after handing day-to-day control to Alex Chriss. That mix of consumer payments, platform scale, and experience running a public company is likely what appealed to Verizon’s board.

In a statement quoted by the company, Schulman framed the job bluntly: Verizon has an “opportunity to redefine our trajectory” by growing market share across mobility and broadband while getting back to meaningful financial growth. The subtext: the board wants a CEO comfortable with product-led consumer businesses but who also understands how to wring efficiency and scale out of large platforms.

Vestberg’s time at Verizon will be remembered for ambitious network spending and a string of strategic moves. He led the company’s 5G strategy and its national rollout, and more recently drove the push to bulk up Verizon’s fiber footprint through the planned acquisition of Frontier Communications. That fiber deal — widely reported at roughly $20 billion and positioned as a way for Verizon to accelerate fiber buildouts and reach more homes — is a major plank of the company’s strategy going forward.

But the Frontier push didn’t happen in a political vacuum. The Federal Communications Commission approved Verizon’s Frontier deal after the company made commitments that included ending certain DEI-related practices — a concession that drew attention and criticism across the industry and from advocates. The FCC’s decision and Verizon’s related regulatory filings have been dissected in the press as an example of how deal approvals and public-policy pressures are now part of M&A calculus in telecom.

That combination — massive infrastructure investment plus regulatory friction — is exactly the sort of messy handoff a new CEO inherits. Schulman will have to keep fiber integration on track while managing the reputational and regulatory fallout that followed Verizon’s concessions around DEI programs.

On the positive side, Verizon owns a network that others envy. It also has a clearer path to growth if the Frontier deal closes: more fiber, more broadband customers, and scale to sell higher-margin services. On the flip side, the core wireless market has softened; consumers are holding on to phones longer than they used to, reducing the cadence of device upgrades, and subscriber growth has been harder to come by. Those structural headwinds are part of why the board appears to have shifted toward an operator with Schulman’s mix of consumer-platform chops and boardroom experience.

Investors will be watching a few things closely: whether Verizon can accelerate fiber builds without ballooning costs, whether Schulman can improve churn and average revenue per user in a saturated wireless market, and how the company navigates the regulatory fallout from recent concessions. Expect heightened scrutiny of capital allocation — will Verizon continue heavy network spend, or tilt more toward returns and stabilizing margins?

The timing of the appointment comes as the U.S. telecom picture is shifting. T-Mobile recently announced its own leadership change — Mike Sievert stepping down with COO Srini Gopalan set to take over — underscoring a period of senior-level turnover across the industry. That kind of churn can be contagious: new leaders often bring fresh strategies, and competitors will be quick to test any perceived openings.

For customers, the near-term impact is likely to be modest: service plans, towers and fiber builds don’t flip overnight. But leadership changes can ripple into pricing, promotions, and the company’s consumer strategy — particularly around bundling wireless and home broadband. For employees, a new CEO often means a new set of priorities and, sometimes, a shakeup in how success is measured. Vestberg’s remaining role as a special adviser through 2026 should smooth some operational continuity, but the tone from the top will shift as Schulman defines his agenda.

Transitions at the top of giant carriers are always partly about optics — a signal to Wall Street, lawmakers and customers — and partly about hard operational shifts. Dan Schulman’s hire is exactly that: a public message that Verizon’s board wants a different beat now that 5G infrastructure is largely in place. Whether Schulman will be judged a steady hand who turns infrastructure into income or a caretaker keeping a network humming until the next quarter will depend on how fast he can turn plans into predictable growth — and how well he balances regulators’ new sensitivities with the company’s long game.