It looks to me like they're almost positioning Verizon to be sold. I have seen these sorts of layoffs (no rhyme or reason and across EVERY GROUP) before and it has always been before a company goes up for sale.
I think there would be anti-trust issues with having an AT&T or T-Mobile buy it, but who knows, maybe Elon might buy it. I have heard that Dan is buddies with Elon.
Pure speculation, but something is quite amiss about how this whole thing has been done and handled from a managerial standpoint.