Big 3 - Q3 2026

Verizon reported 26 October, AT&T 21 October and T-Mobile 28 October 2026.

T-Mobile discontinued postpaid phone disclosure in Q1 2026 and declined to give phone churn on its Q3 call, so its phone figures here are modeled. Gross adds are derived for all three carriers. Estimates are flagged where they appear.

Big 3 switching pool Estimated
7.05
million postpaid phone disconnects
Q3 2025 6.96Q2 2026 6.72
Big 3 gross adds Estimated
8.56
million postpaid phone gross additions
Q3 2025 8.41Q2 2026 8.05
Big 3 net adds Estimated
1.51
million postpaid phone net additions
Q3 2025 1.46Q2 2026 1.34

What stands out

  • Verizon's gross adds rose 10.4% year over year, against 0.7% at AT&T and −4.9% at T-Mobile.
  • Verizon is the only one of the three whose churn is better than a year ago, down to 0.94% from 0.98%. All three rose from Q2, AT&T by the most, from 0.86% to 0.92%.
  • T-Mobile still adds the most lines, an estimated 725K against Verizon's 406K and AT&T's 379K, but that is down from 1 million a year ago.

Postpaid phone

Consumer and Business combined.

Q3 2026 scorecard▲ ▼ show the change vs Q3 2025
CarrierLinesas of 9/30Net addsQ3 '26Net addsQ3 '25Net addsQ2 '26ChurnQ3 '26ChurnQ3 '25ChurnQ2 '26Gross addsQ3 '26Gross addsQ3 '25Gross addsQ2 '26Basis
Verizon94,517406▲ +362441840.94%▼ −0.040.98%0.92%3,060▲ +2882,7722,776Reported
AT&T75,283379▼ −264054320.92%0.92%0.86%2,447▲ +162,4312,354Reported
T-Mobile87,564725▼ −2821,0077190.89%0.89%0.85%3,053▼ −1563,2092,924Estimated

Lines, net adds and gross adds in thousands.

Gross adds are derived from each carrier's own churn rate and base, except Verizon's Q3 2025 figure, which Verizon reported before discontinuing the disclosure in Q1 2026. AT&T publishes gross adds only combined with upgrades; T-Mobile publishes neither.

T-Mobile stopped publishing phone lines, phone net adds and phone churn in Q1 2026, so its 2026 figures are estimated or derived. Q3 2025 was T-Mobile's strongest quarter in the period and included the US Cellular closing.

Gross adds and disconnects
Net adds = gross adds − disconnects. Each bar is a carrier's gross adds, shown as its two components.
Verizon3,060AT&T2,447T-Mobile3,053Thousands of postpaid phone lines
DisconnectsNet adds
The pool by quarter since 2024
Big 3 gross adds and the switching pool, by quarter. The shaded quarters carry an estimated T-Mobile.
T-Mobile estimated6.0K7.0K8.0K9.0K10.0KQ1 '24Q3 '24Q1 '25Q3 '25Q1 '26Q3 '26
Gross addsSwitching pool

Prepaid

Both reporting carriers shed prepaid phone lines this quarter. T-Mobile discontinued prepaid disclosure in Q1 2026, so no Big 3 prepaid total can be formed.

CarrierSeriesLinesas of 9/30/26Net addsQ3 2026ChurnQ3 2026ARPUQ3 2026Churn is measured on
VerizonCore prepaid phone18,603−523.80%$33.51Core prepaid connections excl. SafeLink
AT&TPrepaid phone16,453−212.41%$36.88Prepaid phone
T-MobileNot disclosed—————
Lines and net adds in thousands.

Revenue per account and per line

CarrierMeasureQ3 2026vs Q3 2025Basis
VerizonPostpaid ARPA$168.08▼ −1.9%All postpaid lines; consumer + business
AT&TConsumer postpaid ARPA$163.07▲ +4.9%All consumer postpaid lines
T-MobilePostpaid ARPA$155.73▲ +4.2%All postpaid lines; consumer + business
AT&TPostpaid phone ARPU$58.90▲ +4.0%Postpaid phone lines only