| Relationship Sales Engineer IV |
First the weaknesses:
Size. Verizon is too damn big. It is a monster with 210,000
employees. Getting things done is very difficult and consequently there
is a high chance of pissing-off a customer. If Verizon could get out of
the way of Verizon, however, that's a different story...
There are advantages to being this big. Brand recognition is
important. I don't have to worry about asking for an appointment and
hearing the brush-off. I say Verizon and that get's me in. Period.
(I've been an independent before and getting in front of the client was
a lot harder).
Being this large gives access to numerous resources most companies dream
of. We have a huge product portfolio and an enormous installed customer
base. We're number one in land-line equivalents (about 108 million),
and number one, for now, in wireless (33 million?) and number three in
long distance (ahead of Sprint).
Verizon is building a nationwide backbone which probably means nothing
to non-telecom people. In business terms, it means Verizon won't have
to buy network access from other national providers like Sprint or
Qwest, we'll have our own.
More over, Verizon has a surprising ability to adapt to to new
technology. There is a VOIP strategy and it has a front-end application
that could be a huge success with business users (IOBI) and possibly
others. I think they are also very focused on being competitive by
being outward looking, not inward focused. An example: Verizon now
offers a promotion where you receive a free wireless router when you
sign up for DSL. Of course, there are going to be those people who buy
there DSL and split the cost with two or three neighbors via wireless.
Verizon was not oblivious to this possibility, but saw more value in how
it might promote DSL penetration rather than spending energy to figure
out a way to get every last person to pay for every kilobyte they
download.
Being number one in wireless customer creates money for huge investments
in technology and so Verizon is ahead of Sprint on 3G (EV-DO). There
could be some competitive issues from an ATT-Cingular merger, and their
EDGE wireless data service could seriously compete with EV-DO. Also,
ATT is leaner and more focused so they could have a more successful VOIP
strategy, but they are financially troubled. MCI unburdened by debt
thanks to the US District Court, could also pose a challenge, however,
there are often rumors of Verizon positioning to buy MCI.
Verizon is also rolling out fiber to the premises which is a whole other
ball of wax, but one that answers the challenge from cable companies.
Really, owning the last mile of copper from the CO to the home/business
is Verizon's key asset. Although this base continue to erode due to
technology substitution and some competition, there is alot of volume
there. Cable telephony could threaten it, but it's going to take a lot
to get people thinking of their cable company as the phone company. In
a blackout, you always have your landline phone- pick it up and there's
dial tone-- do you always have cable?
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