Verizon Restructuring – What Enterprise Customers Need to Know

Tony: Hello, today is Friday, November 14th, 2025. I’m Tony Mangino from TC2, and this is Staying Connected.

Big news from Verizon yesterday as news outlets reported a plan to cut roughly 15,000 jobs — about 15% of its U.S. workforce — under its new CEO Dan Schulman. Most of the reductions will reportedly come from non-union management roles, with management ranks shrinking by over 20%.  It’s the largest headcount reduction in Verizon’s history. 

For large enterprise procurement organizations, and network infrastructure leaders listening today, the key question is: What does this mean for your operational stability over the next 6 to 12 months?

Joining me today to discuss this reduction in force, potential impacts and what your organization should do is my colleague here at TC2, Brent Knight.

Brent: It’s significant, Tony. More than a RIF, a 15% workforce reduction at a Tier-1 carrier, signals a systemic restructuring. Enterprise buyers should immediately consider continuity and supplier risk.

Tony: Let’s get straight to it, if you’re running a global network or procurement for a large enterprise, the real question is: What does this mean for my business-critical services?

Brent: Immediate concern is staffing stability in groups that support enterprise accounts: provisioning, escalation teams, project managers, engineering, managed services, account support. When cuts impact these areas, enterprise customers feel it quickly.

Tony: Brent, what do you think will be some of the immediate impacts of these layoffs?

Brent: Slowdown in Service Delivery & Provisioning – Provisioning and engineering teams are often hit first. Enterprises may experience delays for new circuits, stalled transformation programs, slower MACD responses, and incomplete project handoffs.

Escalation & Troubleshooting Bottlenecks – Loss of experienced staff results in longer repair intervals, reduced access to senior technical support, and slower escalation paths.

Account Management Disruption – Reorganizations and turnover can create instability in account teams, shifting contacts and disrupting operational continuity.

Communication Gaps – During major restructuring, messaging becomes inconsistent or vague. Enterprises may struggle to get clear updates or stable points of contact.

Tony: Brent, looking out a bit further, what might enterprises expect in the next 12 months or so?

Brent: There are a few key areas to keep on the radar:

Service Quality Variability – Performance may fluctuate as new or reorganized teams settle in.

Product Roadmap Uncertainty – Understanding where Verizon will invest versus simply support is even more important now.

Increased Use of Subcontractors – Expect more third-party technicians or outsourced elements in operations and support.

Organizational Instability – After major layoffs, voluntary attrition typically spikes. Secondary losses can impact support quality.

Reliance on Accelerated Automation – Suppliers often push automation to cover resource gaps.  Automation can improve efficiency but can also create friction if deployed prematurely or haphazardly.

Tony: Brent, my ears really perked up when you mentioned potentially more outsourcing, as we’ve been talking a lot here on Staying Connected recently about the significant challenges enterprise customers have been experiencing in the aftermath of the Verizon outsourcing to HCL.

So back to the discussion at hand, what can and should sourcing and network teams be doing about this, today?

Brent: There are quite a few things that should be done actually:

Conduct an Immediate Support Model Assessment – Identify your Verizon-dependent operations and single points of failure.  Create an executive one-pager on your Verizon footprint, major dependencies, and in-flight initiatives.

Identify and Strengthen Escalation Paths – Document backups for every critical Verizon account contact. Expect turnover.

Increase Governance Cadence – Move governance checkpoints from quarterly to monthly to track stability.  The usual QBR or stewardship meeting with pre-canned slides is not going to cut it here.

Review Contractual Protections Around Service Performance: Not pricing—performance. Understand rights tied to chronic service issues and service level failures.

Finally, I mentioned this earlier, Audit Critical In-flight Projects – Consolidating management layers and central functions can introduce execution risk for:

• Complex SD-WAN or SASE migrations
• Private 5G or campus wireless deployments
• Multi-region voice platform consolidations

Really anywhere you’re relying on Verizon’s program management, solution architects, or professional services, you should assume distraction and churn over the next 6–12 months.

Tony: Brent, thanks for joining me this morning.  And to our listeners, if Verizon is a strategic supplier in your environment today, this really is a moment to lean in and not wait.  Verizon remains a large and capable provider—but this level of restructuring is sure to have real impacts over the next year.

To our listeners, if you would like to discuss how the Verizon restructuring might impact your organization or learn more about the calls to action Brent mentioned, or if you’d like to discuss other technology strategy, sourcing and cost reduction needs with Brent, me, or any of our TC2 and LB3 colleagues, please give us a call or shoot us an email. 

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