Verizon CEO doesn't care about landlines anymore, feels 'liberated' by new outlook
By Ross Miller 
posted Sep 17th 2009 8:42PM
posted Sep 17th 2009 8:42PM
posted Sep 17th 2009 8:42PM
Now that we've thrown 'em off the trail, use the form below to get in touch with the people at Engadget. Please fill in all of the required fields because they're required.
verizon WIRELESS is the largest us cell carrier in terms of subscribers, but Verizon itself only owns 55% of vzw (vodaphone owns the rest). therefore verizon has much more to gain from fios and traditional landlines
i will not be giving up my landline anytime soon. however, my wireless service is definitely the dog chasing the bus in my world.
DSL is still the cheapest broadband solution, that requires POTS.
It sounds like broadband is becoming luxury, if you can't pay $50, you won't have internet.
i hear ya man. i still can't get Broadband at my house and i only live about a mile out of town. we have a pretty dense neighborhood too but we are all forced to use this crappy satellite stuff (which goes out for like 2 weeks after any kind of remotely strong storm) since Verizon won't upgrade the lines.
"DSL is still the cheapest broadband solution, that requires POTS"
That's a Verizon lie, one that they were supposed to abandon a year or two ago. I had Verizon DSL in Chicago 10 years ago and it was not dependent on the phone line. In fact, it was different wires and even different installers.
If you press them on it today, they'll mumble something about "dry loop DSL" and claim it's not available yet. Or that's the last I heard.
Dry loop DSL just means they don't force you to have landline analog phone service along with DSL data service. It's still the same copper wiring that both of those services run over. As opposed to fiber to the home, which bypasses the copper wire entirely. Once Verizon rolls out FiOS enough, they can trash talk copper all they want because they'll only be in the signals-over-copper business for rural customers, if at all. Eventually if they transition all the higher-margin customers to fiber they might sell off the copper network to someone else to let them run a telco geared for rural subscribers.
This is one of the reasons why I hate Verizon as a whole. They are like a mucky sticky goo that you can't get rid of but gets everywhere. That is why I am switching to sprint! My contract just ended, so mr. Pre here I come.
I want a phone that works! I don´t care about all the bells and very very expensive whistles. I would be happy to buy a smart phone but I can´t afford it. I am too busy paying 45 % in taxes (total). I also don´t make much money...go figure. Forty five percent for a guy that can not afford to rent an apartment...what the hell!
It figures that the head of Verizon would want to get rid of landlines. Why? Because the people who need them most are AT&T wireless customers.
@Robert - guess you missed yesterday's story on how Vodafone is looking to dump it's interest in VZW and Verizon wouldn't mine re-taking whole ownership
What baffles me is that if he doesn't care about wired lines, I would assume wireless would be the bread and butter. Is having one of the worst device line-ups and constantly delaying device releases indicative of "care" at Verizon? Leaving your customers in the dark? And then turning around and charging the highest cost for service of the other providers? Because that's the fast track to becoming "not the #1 wireless provider", especially when you're the only one currently without a premier device. Have to assume change is around the corner with this latest Seidenberg statement. It better be.