Verizon's Gutsy Bet
from the going-all-out dept
Business Week is running an interesting profile of Verizon’s CEO, Ivan Seidenberg, putting into perspective just how big a bet he’s making on the future of telecom. While other telecom companies are struggling with the current market, and are worried about betting on new technologies, Verizon is pushing forward on all fronts as hard as they can. They’re working to install fiber-to-the-home, cover an expanding area with WiFi, and launch the first major 3G high speed cellular data network in the US. The other telecom and cable firms think he’s crazy, and think it’s all going to result in a costly failure. However, if he can pull it off, Seidenberg realizes that they’ll have a huge lead on everyone else. His competitors disagree – saying that there are other ways to achieve the same basic results without spending quite so much. They also point to all the hurdles Verizon will face in pushing forward with this vision. Whichever side you agree with, this is certainly a worthwhile read just to get the big picture from the point of view of Verizon.
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Bob Cringely addressed some of this...
…and said that the reason the “incumbent” phone companies are building fiber networks so that they have a new network that they don’t have to open up to competitors. As usual, they’re out to maximize profit and stifle competition.
See his article for more (specifically the first half):
http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20030703.html