Category Archives: Landlines

Verizon Reaches an Agreement with Unions to End Strike

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As per the U.S. Labor Department, Verizon and its two unions extended an agreement on a new labor contract, flagging about 39,000 landline employees to resume work after a long strike of 44 days.
As per a statement passed by Labor Secretary Thomas Perez, the four-year deal is going to be put into writing and the union members will start working next week. It will be the first time that the agreement will be expanded to 165 Verizon wireless employees.
Union leaders are thankful to Perez who brought Verizon Chief Executive Officer Lowell McAdam and two union executives to Washington for discussion of alternatives to resolve the issue.
“This proves that when we stand together we can raise up working families, improve our communities and protect the American middle class,” said CWA President Chris Shelton.
IBEW President Lonnie Stephenson shared that the provisional contract is a significant advancement in bringing the six-week strike to an end and keep “good Verizon jobs in America.”
Chief Administrative Officer Marc Reed said in a statement “Verizon is very pleased with this ‘agreement in principle.” “We look forward to having all of our employees soon back at work in their regular positions and doing what they do best — serving our customers.”
The shares of Verizon grew less than 1 percent to $50.62 at the close Friday in New York.
Roger Entner, an analyst with Recon Analytics LLC said “In the end, it looks like everyone wins.”
“The employees will get an increase over four years, which is a year longer than originally proposed. And Verizon can get all its employees back to work, including those that had been filling in on the landline side.”
To fulfil business requirements during the strike, Verizon had dispatched non-union workers and managers to call centers and field-service assignments. As per Chief Financial Officer Fran Shammo, the strike has affected the company’s landline business. After-effects of the strike might result in non-inclusion of FiOS TV or broadband customers in the quarter.
In addition to FiOS business, the company has been casting off union-heavy operations in three states since last month.
“This might be the last big strike for Verizon because wireline will have less and less leverage in an increasingly wireless business,” said Entner.

Verizon Trademark “One Talk” Hints Mobile, Landline Combination

Verizon, a leading network carrier in the US, filed a trademark application for a “One Talk” service which hints at a potential move from the carrier to integrate fixed and mobile services. The network’s trademark application states- “Telecommunications services, namely, providing telephone services; and providing a unified system of integrated fixed and mobile voice services where landline and mobile communications devices can take the same calls, use the same telephone numbers and share the same calling features such as voice and text messaging.”

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Verizon’s trademark application, reported by Phandroid, indicates the network’s plan to offer a service that would allow its landline and mobile customers to seamlessly shift their conversations to and from the company’s wireless and wireline calling services. The Phandroid report states- “We imagine the company will require a special home phone to take full advantage of the feature, though it’s possible the call mirroring options could be made available no matter which phone you use. Although many people have moved to mobile phones for their primary communication needs, there’s still a big crowd of folks who subscribe to home phone service, else availability of those services wouldn’t be as plentiful as they are today. For those people, using your phone while you’re at home doesn’t need to be a watered down, ancient experience — make it just as smart and convenient as if you were using a smartphone, and we’re happy.”
And, Phandroid also said that such services are already hitting the market. Last year, AT&T detailed its “NumberSync” technology that is designed to allow customers to share their primary phone number with other connected devices such as smartwatches, even if their phone isn’t connected to a cellular network.
Also, in March, Google announced its Fiber Phone service, which builds on the Google Fiber Internet and TV service to create a triple-play service offering. Shiver-Blake said “Your Fiber Phone number lives in the cloud, which means that you can use it on almost any phone, tablet or laptop.” He further added, “It can ring your landline when you’re home, or your mobile device when you’re on-the-go.”

What Makes Landlines a Preferred Choice for Businesses?

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It doesn’t matter how quick and efficient the technology, cell phones seem to still lag behind in delivering certain aspects that are critical to business communication. A primary reason for this is that businesses largely rely on landline usage so as to establish user identification, offer clearer communication and guarantee a sustainable life on the device that does not need repetitive battery charging.

A landline communication may be slower if compared to the speed and quickness of its new-age media counterparts, such as email, messaging, and social media. However, it has certain unique benefits that cannot be overlooked. The benefits drawn from using landlines easily surpass the few limitations it has. In the impersonal world we live in, landline phones that help establish urgent business connections with a prospective client or partner through voice, are still very important business resources.

Talking with someone via the telephone is indeed not as efficient as talking with someone face-to-face. For situations where a distinct face-to-face meeting cannot be conducted, a phone call is the most befitting way to obtain an immediate, direct response. With various other forms of communication, for example, texting or email, you typically leave a message and hope for a quick response. Often, such messages tend to get delayed due to various reasons and can turn into a stressful situation if a business problem needs to be addressed immediately.

The teleconferencing feature that is offered by landline telephones nowadays is a provision that has surpassed the barriers of traditional two-way communication on a telephone. It draws people closer from across the organization and hailing from different geographical locales at minimal cost. Such features have tremendously helped save crucial time and resources of organizations. When used along with the feature of video conferencing, such calls bring the essence of a personal meeting to the communication when presentations are viewed, questions are turned via the Internet and answers are shared among a number of people attending the call.

While many useful features suggest that landlines preferably be used more extensively in organizations and offices, the above mentioned are some of the benefits that stand above cell phones.