[3] It is the world's second-largest telecommunications company by revenue and its mobile network is the largest wireless carrier in the United States, with 146 million subscribers as of December 31, 2024.

SBC Communications bought the Bells' former parent AT&T Corporation and took on the AT&T name, and CenturyLink acquired Qwest (formerly US West) in 2011 and later became Lumen Technologies in 2020.

[26][28][29] Due to its size, Verizon Wireless was able to offer national coverage at competitive rates, giving it an advantage over regional providers typical of the time.

[25] Bell Atlantic changed its name to Verizon Communications in June 2000, when the FCC approved the US$64.7 billion merger with telephone company GTE, nearly two years after the deal was proposed in July 1998.

[35][36] The strike affected quarterly revenues,[37] resulting in Verizon Wireless' postponement of the company's initial public offering (IPO)[37] (the IPO was ultimately cancelled in 2003 because the company no longer needed to raise revenue for Verizon Wireless due to increased profits),[38] and created a backlog of repairs.

[43] Mail servers at Verizon.net were configured in December 2004 to not accept connections from Europe by default in an attempt to reduce spam email that was originating from the region.

[51][52] It sold its interests in telecommunications providers in the Dominican Republic (Verizon Dominicana, previously CODETEL), Puerto Rico and Venezuela to América Móvil.

[56] The acquisition gave the company access to MCI's million corporate clients and international holdings, expanding Verizon's presence into global markets.

[48] USA Today reported in May 2006 that Verizon, as well as AT&T and BellSouth, had given the National Security Agency landline phone records following the September 11 attacks.

[60][61] That same month, a $50 billion lawsuit was filed by two lawyers on behalf of all Verizon subscribers for privacy violations and to prevent the company from releasing additional records without consent or warrant.

The three patents named were filed by Bell Atlantic in 1997, and relate to the conversion of IP addresses into phone numbers, a key technology of Vonage's business.

[67] In September 2007, Verizon Wireless reversed a controversial decision to deny NARAL Pro-Choice America a short code through which the organization could text consumers who had signed up for messaging from the group.

[69][70] During that auction, the company bid $9.4 billion and won the bulk of national and local licenses for airwaves reaching approximately 469 million people.

[85] The same month, Verizon's E-911 service failed in the aftermath of the June 2012 derecho storm in several northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C., with some problems lasting several days.

[88] The FCC ruled that Verizon must stop charging users an added fee for using 4G smartphones and tablets as Wi-Fi hotspots (known as "tethering").

[91] The Guardian reported it had obtained an order by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and approved by the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court that required Verizon to provide the National Security Agency (NSA) with telephone metadata for all calls originating in the U.S.[92][93] Verizon Wireless was not part of the NSA data collection for wireless accounts due to foreign ownership issues.

[100] In May 2015, Verizon agreed to pay $90 million "to settle federal and state investigations into allegations mobile customers were improperly billed for premium text messages.

The publication attracted controversy after it was reported that its writers were forbidden from publishing articles related to net neutrality or domestic surveillance.

[104] On August 1, 2016, Verizon announced its acquisition of Fleetmatics, a fleet telematics system company in Dublin, Ireland, for $2.4 billion, to build products that it offers to enterprises for logistics and mobile workforces.

VoiceLink has limitations, including incompatibility with services or devices that require the transmission of data over the telephone line, and a dependency on battery backup in case of power failure.

A Verizon spokesperson responded to the allegations, stating that the company's top priority was to restore service to customers as quickly as possible, and that VoiceLink was a means of doing so in the event that larger repairs had to be done to the infrastructure.

[110][111] Charter reportedly rejected the deal around the end of May 2017, citing that the offer was too low for them to accept, and its largest shareholder Liberty Media stated that they were not ready to sell.

[116][117][118] On December 10, 2018, Verizon announced that 10,400 managers had agreed to leave the company as part of a "voluntary separation program" offered to 44,000 employees, resulting in a cut of around 7% of its workforce.

At the same time, the company announced a $4.6 billion write-off on its media division, citing "increased competitive and market pressures throughout 2018 that have resulted in lower-than-expected revenues and earning.

[137] In December 2023, Verizon announced plans to open a new global center of excellence in Limerick, Ireland, in early 2024, aiming to create over 400 jobs in the next two years.

This expansion, which adds to its existing workforce of 1,000 employees in Dublin, will offer various positions in technology and communications, including financial operations and network engineering.

[171] According to Google Project Zero researcher Tavis Ormandy, Verizon applies a simplistic certification methodology to give its "Excellence in Information Security Testing" award, e.g. to Comodo Group.

Not detected were Chromodo browser disabling of the same-origin policy, a VNC-delivered with a default of weak authentication, not enabling address space layout randomization (ASLR) when scanning, and using access control lists (ACLs) throughout its product.

[175][176] In May 2020, the Better Business Bureau criticized Verizon for claiming it was "building the most powerful 5G experience for America" and recommended that the company make clear and conspicuous disclosures to consumers about the limited actual availability of its 5G network.

[185] In late 2010, Verizon Communications joined with Vodafone Group in a joint partnership to replace Sprint as the official wireless telecommunications partner of the National Football League.