Tag Archives: verizon

Verizon, Verizon Wireless

Verizon Acquires Portland’s Skyward to Expand Its Horizons in Telecommunications

Leave a comment

Verizon Skyward Acquisition

With its plan to acquire Yahoo, Verizon has been in the headlines for quite a while now.

The telecommunication giant has turned out to be well-read about the technological changes being introduced in the telecommunications industry. Therefore, the spectrum of Verizon Communications Inc. is bound to be broadened beyond wireless and home telephone service.

This has been proven with another acquisition by Verizon, of a Portland-based drone company – Skyward.

This is one of the many steps that Verizon is taking towards transforming the landscape of telecommunications.

With the acquisition of Skyward, Verizon has quantified that it is looking forward to expanding its horizons in telecommunications. This would be done by including Skyward’s drone and IoT expertise with Verizon’s wireless, home phone, and prepaid phone service.

Though the company has been involved in the provision of such services before, this acquisition can be a complete game changer!

A Little About Skyward

Skyward, based in Portland, Oregon, is a leading private drone companies. The company was founded in 2012 and is known to provide commercial drone management software solutions to construction and film production businesses.

With their software programs, Skyward helps businesses in operations and project management. With these programs, companies can connect all project-related people and equipment together, to enable a smooth workflow.

“Drones are becoming an essential tool for improving business processes for large companies, but scalability has been a challenge”, said MR. Jonathan Evans, the founder and CEO of Skyward.

For a fact, a lot of businesses have been adopting revolutionary drone management solutions for carrying out a smoother work pattern. And for telecommunication services who already have a huge business-class customer base, it would be a gold mine to include these services within its spectrum.

“Skyward’s drone operations management platform combined with Verizon’s network, reliability, scalability and expertise in delivering enterprise solutions will allow organizations to efficiently and safely scale drones across multiple divisions and hundreds of use cases”, Jonathan said, referring to the acquisition.

Verizon’s Vision

The vision of Verizon behind this acquisition is to expand its services beyond its home phone, wireless, and prepaid phone service. The telecommunication behemoth is looking forward to spreading its wings in telecommunications sector, with drone management and IoT.

“Last quarter we announced our strategy to drive innovation and widespread adoption for in-flight wireless connectivity through our Airborne LTE Operations (ALO) initiative, a new service to simplify certification and connectivity of wireless drones”, stated Mike Lanman, the senior vice president of Enterprise Products and IoT at Verizon, in a press release.

“This acquisition is a natural progression of our core focus on operating in innovative, high-growth markets, leveraging our network, scalability, fleet management, device management, data analytics and security enablement capabilities and services to simplify the drone industry and help support the adoption of IoT”, he added.

Therefore, with Skywards drone management services, Verizon is going to provide top-notch drone management solutions that can handle various activities in various business industries. Thus, broadening its area of service in telecommunications.

Not only this, Verizon has been consistently making headlines with its continuous efforts towards expansion and future-proofing.

By providing various new offers for its prepaid phone service and home telephone service, Verizon is also giving a tough time to its telecommunication competitors.

A recent example is the unlimited data plan that Verizon introduced as an answer to it’s competitors.

The Bottom Line

With this acquisition, Verizon can have a better space in the IoT sector. Skyward’s services in the domain of drone management has been marvelous. Therefore, the company’s products are best suited to Verizon’s huge name in telecommunications industry.

With this smart blend of high-quality products, cutting-edge technology, and competent personnel, Verizon is going to strike it rich in the domain of drone management and IoT sector, while still being one of the best prepaid phone service providers in the United States.

Verizon, Verizon Wireless

Verizon Wireless Lands in Legal Tussle with Consumers over Connectivity Issues in South Jersey

Leave a comment

Verizon Wireless

The wind does not seem to be blowing in favor of Verizon Wireless. The company is already facing strong competition from its rivals in the field of wireless residential phone service, and it’s not turning out to be easy for the company to seek enough room for new growth in said stream.  Now the company seems to be in legal trouble with landline phone service users in South Jersey because of connectivity problems with the company’s cooper-line service.

Consumer Advocates Have Called on BPU:

Because of the reasons mentioned above, many consumers may convince the state to investigate the company’s residential phone service provided to the users in South Jersey. Considering the appearance of over 200 people in the court for a hearing conducted last month on the issue, consumer advocates are once again forced to call on state regulators with the objective of conducting in-depth investigation into the company’s landline phone service provided to consumers of more than a dozen municipalities falling in the region.

Similar kinds of letters had been written to the BPU (The Board of Public Utilities) in this regard. Therefore, SDRC (The State Division of Rate Counsel) and AARP renewed calls to help the agency investigate the way the telecommunication giant takes care of its residential phone service infrastructure in South Jersey.

Stefanie Brand, State Division Rate Counsel, declared the issues as persuasive and can’t be resolved through piecemeal attempts for the purpose of repairing individual copper service lines a case-by-case basis in her letter written to the BPU on 7th September 2016.

Her arguments were supported by AARP officials. They have repeated their call for a full-blown investigation into the quality of service provided in the region, first made in the year 2013.

The Dispute Has Been Going on for Several Years:

All of the landline phone service users hailing from 16 communities and Cumberland County have been experiencing this problem for a number of years. On problem suggests that services on the line contain static and are of very poor quality, especially during bad weather. Most importantly, students are not able to study or complete their homework because of the lack of superfast internet at home.

This does not seem to be the end of the problem. This issue of poor quality residential phone service has also drawn critical attention from state lawmakers.

This Is What the Company Has to Say in Reply:

The company does not provide its superfast connectivity services in the communities. However, the company claims to have invested over $100 billion in order to ameliorate its dial-up connectivity and residential home telephone services for the last two years. Most importantly, the company professionals have been working hard in order to solve specific issues identified by the customers at the hearing conducted during the month of August 2016 in tiny Estelle Manor. The company also claimed that they are working on developing additional initiatives for dealing successfully with the concerns of its valuable customers.

Now the company is hoping that there will not be any requirement of legal proceedings in this case. Since most of the issues are being taken care of by the company, the actions taken in this regard will confirm it.

Summary;

As for users, they don’t seem satisfied with the company’s residential phone services and its promises. They have approached professional legal consumer advocates who requested BPU to look into the matter. In addition to that, this problem has also been raised to SDRC and AARP officials. They have echoed the voice of users facing connectivity problems. On the other hand, the company does not seem to be getting on the back-foot at all. Instead, the company has clarified that they are looking into the problem deeply to improve the consumer experience with their services. In simple words, this legal battle between the users and the company seems to be getting bigger. As for the result, only time will tell.

Telecom, Verzion

Verizon Acquires Yahoo for $4.83 Billion

Leave a comment

verizon

 

Setting the stage for a bigger internet leap, Verizon Communications Inc. has acquired Yahoo Inc’s core internet business for a sum of $4.83 billion.

The country’s largest telecom giant has revealed its plans to combine Yahoo with another faded online star AOL, which was also acquired by Verizon last year for an amount of $4.4 billion. The costs of high stock compensation deals that were given to employees by Marissa Mayer, Yahoo CEO, will also be covered by Verizon.

The current CEO, Marissa Mayer, seems to remain with the company for the time being. Although speculations are there that she is not going to remain for long at the position.

The acquisition is expected to complete by the first quarter of next year. Tim Armstrong, AOL CEO passed a statement stating “We have enormous respect for what Yahoo has accomplished: This transaction is about unleashing Yahoo’s full potential, building upon our collective synergies, and strengthening and accelerating that growth,” “Combining Verizon, AOL and Yahoo will create a new powerful competitive rival in mobile media, and an open, scaled alternative offering for advertisers and publishers.”

Lowell McAdam, Verizon chief executive said “Just over a year ago we acquired AOL to enhance our strategy of providing a cross-screen connection for consumers, creators and advertisers. The acquisition of Yahoo will put Verizon in a highly competitive position as a top global mobile media company.” Verizon will take over the ailing company’s online assets including mail, search and instant messaging, as well as its real estate holdings and ad technology. Yahoo’s cash, stakes in Alibaba Group Holdings and Yahoo Japan are excluded from the sale.

By combining AOL and Yahoo, Verizon is looking forward to providing a serious challenge to its two main competitors, Google and Facebook. However, a UBS analyst commented “Consumer interest in Go90, Verizon’s mobile video portal, has been tepid,” “Meanwhile, trends at Yahoo have been difficult, with the company losing share of mobile ad dollars to the heavy weights (Google, Facebook, etc.)…. While this deal will barely move the growth or margin profile of Verizon, synergies over time could provide upside to earnings.”

landline, Landlines, Telecom, Verzion, Verzion

Verizon Reaches an Agreement with Unions to End Strike

Leave a comment

verizon

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.

Home Phone

Broadband Collusion by Verizon, Other Service Providers

Leave a comment

Broadband Collusion by Verizon

This summer New York City’s Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications reported in a finding that Verizon was evading all the build out commitment that it made under a 2008 video franchise agreement. The audit of Verizon’s FiOS rollout in New York City showed that Verizon failed to meet the desired network performance it promised its customers. Moreover, it was also unable to deliver high-speed fiber optic internet and television to everyone in the city. Previously, Verizon had promised during the negotiation for the city franchise that the entire city will be wired with fiber optic cables by June 2014 and anyone who wanted FiOS would get it within six months. The audit also found that despite declaring that the whole city had been wired in November 2014, Verizon constantly refused orders for service. The audit also claimed that it hindered the audit process. However, the final study concluded only 50-60% of the city was wired.

In the fall of 2015, the Communications Workers of America announced it was filing letters with the telephone regulators in six different states and Washington, DC calling for an open investigation because of deteriorated copper landline networks.

Verizon earlier admitted in July 2015 in a letter to the FCC that only $200 million had been spent over the previous seven years in order to maintain the copper landline network in eleven states and in Columbia. More recently, the New York State Attorney General’s Office began an investigation into the internet service providers in the state. Specifically, the subscribers were unhappy with the network speed that Verizon provided them. Similarly others providers like Time Warner Cable and Cablevision have also been misleading customers with slower speeds. Verizon had been asked to respond to

 

Home Phone

Cumberland County Wants to Know Verizon Network Issues from Customers

Leave a comment

Are you having problems with your landline? If yes, Cumberland County officials want to know what the problem is.

network issues

The county has recently set up a form on their website for Verizon home phone subscribers allowing customers to submit any issues related to service or any other problem they may be experiencing. The county comprised of 16 communities in South Jersey announced that the reports compiled will help its consistent effort to ensure the telecom company Verizon New Jersey doesn’t abandon copper services in South Jersey.

Last month the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities filed a joint petition last month demanding that Verizon standardizes its network and maintains the copper infrastructure in its communities. The displayed form requires customer’s personal information and asks a few questions regarding the home phone service issues along with the date on which they encountered the problem. Other questions include, “what did Verizon do to resolve the problem?” and “Did Verizon contact you or come to your home to remedy your service issue? If so, what specifically did they do or say. Please be as detailed as possible providing this information.”

Once the user has finished the form he can submit it. The group of 16 municipalities, from Atlantic, Salem, Gloucester and Cumberland counties, have been engaged in a fractious battle against the major telecom company -Veri        zon. This battle has been fought for the past 2 years over basic home phone services in South Jersey. Plus, the group of municipalities hopes that BPU ultimately holds a public hearing where both sides will be given equal opportunity to present themselves in the case.

Home Phone

New Jersey Officials Urge Verizon to Maintain Landline Services

Leave a comment

verizon

A petition has been filed with the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities by a group of 16 municipalities from four counties. This was the final effort to ensure that Verizon doesn’t abandon the basic home phone service. South Jersey officials and Verizon New Jersey have sparred over the issue of broadband service improvements for two years, reaching levels of contention. This matter eventually reached a pinnacle in May when the BPU approved an accord allowing Verizon to be exempted from certain state regulations for basic home phone services.

The South Jersey officials have reached out to BPU numerous times with enquiries regarding Verizon copper landline infrastructure maintenance in their respective municipalities. South Jersey officials were stubborn on their point while stating that the wireless carrier has continued to push its customers towards vague charges. Many prefer to keep their copper system as it has been proved to be more reliable than a wireless service.

The petition was filed last week and it further included municipalities from Cumberland, Atlantic, and Salem counties. Here are the municipalities pledging support:

  • Atlantic County: Estell Manor and Weymouth Township
  • Gloucester County: South Harrison Township
  • Salem County: Alloway Township, Lower Alloways Creek, Mannington Township, Township of Pilesgrove and Upper Pittsgrove Township.
  • Cumberland County: Commercial Township, Downe Township, Hopewell Township, Lawerence Township, Maurince River Township, City of Milliville, Upper Deerfield Township, and Fairfield Township

Cumberland County jointly filed the petition on behalf of all the municipalities who supported voluntarily. They requested that BPU should take strict action so that data, telephone communications, and internet services are equally available to all the residents residing in South Jersey as they are to the others in the state. The petition has ordered BPU to consider potential funding sources that might improve broadband service in South Jersey which is considered much worse than the more affluent areas in the state.

One such funding source that was suggested by officials was the federal Connect America Fund — a $9 billion program that the Federal Communication Commission authorized over the next six years to 10 telecommunication carriers “for rural broadband deployment,” according to the FCC’s website. The FCC plans to “expand broadband to nearly 7.3 million rural consumers in 45 states nationwide and one U.S. territory over the next few years.”

The petition also demands that the BPU direct Verizon to “respond to the allegations” brought by the municipalities and initiate an investigation into the allegations that Verizon has continued to neglect copper landline infrastructure in South Jersey.

“If the BPU does not hear this coalition’s plea, there will be residents and business in three to five years that will not have any recourse with their (landline) phones and wireless,” Facemyer said, noting that wireless is “not a viable alternative in rural South Jersey.”

Verzion

Falls Church Copper Customers to Get Fiber Network from Verizon

Leave a comment

adtVerizon has transitioned its Falls Church customers from copper to their fiber network. With this, it has taken a major leap in its goal to retire more of its aging wireless facilities. Verizon has already planned on replacing copper distribution and its loop facilities with FTTH at a few of its locations in the Falls Church Central office.

Once the process is completed, Verizon has promised to provide services over the fiber network. Similar to various other marketers were coppered has been retired, the service providers complained that it is unable to provide the IP-based FiOS services but will provide traditional POTS services over FTTH network architecture.

“Following the transition to fiber, Verizon will continue to offer these customers the same POTS service over fiber at the same or better price as they received on copper facilities, with no change in the underlying features and functionalities in their service,” Verizon said in an FCC filing. “There are no wholesale customers at these locations at this time.”

It also appended that if a wholesale provider is willing to provide service at any of the affected locations, they will be eligible to buy services over a more reliable network as they have done the same in other areas where copper fiber has deployed.

Over years, Verizon has made steady progress in transforming from copper to fiber, meeting it’s migration goals for 2015. By the end of this year, it has set a goal of converting a total of 200000 customers from copper to the fiber network. Despite its constant efforts and potential to provide reliable speed services like FiOS, Verizon’s copper retirement efforts have been previously fraught with controversy. It has battled accusations from the Communications Workers of America union that is in the negotiating process of a new contract.

Home Phone, Verzion

Verizon Explores Sale of its Enterprise Assets

Leave a comment

Verizon

Verizon has started to consider a sale of business services and data storage assets. One of the largest U.S. wireless carriers, Verizon seeks to focus on its core business.

The assets, worth around $10 billion, which include the business formerly known as MCI, provides landline as well as internet services for many customers. Recently, the business has struggled to keep up with the advances in the cloud computing sphere and has faced fierce competition with its peers such as Alphabet Inc. and Amazon.com Inc.

It might not be easy to separate Verizon’s enterprise assets and any potential buyer would need to be willing to sign commercial agreements with the company. Verizon is still planning how these assets should be structured. Earlier this year, Century Link was talking terms with Verizon to buy some of its assets but was unable to agree on the terms. In a strategic shift, Century Link lately announced it would explore a few options for some of its data centers and sell them accordingly.

Verizon unveils new rate plans

Citigroup Inc. is hitched up with Verizon and has constantly advising the company on the sales of its assets that have estimated annual earnings before taxes, interest, depreciation and amortization of around $2 billion. Both the companies remained mum as the matter is considered to be confidential.

In recent years, the enterprise telecommunication company sought to adopt corporate customers which are searching for more advanced and cheaper offerings to manage their data. AT&T has been analyzing the sale of its data center assets for some time, while Windstream Holdings Inc. sold all its data center business for $575 million to TierPoint last month. During the company’s third-quarter earnings call held on Oct. 20, Verizon’s Chief Financial Officer Fran Shammo announced that it continues “to work through secular and economic challenges” with its global enterprise division, which posted a 4.9 percent decline in revenue in the quarter ended Sept. 30.

 

Verzion

Northeast Mayors Ask Verizon to Build High Speed Network

Leave a comment

verizonMayors of 14 major northeast cities including New York, asked Verizon to fulfill its promise of building up a high-speed internet network and home phone services. On October 1st, a letter to Verizon’s CEO, Lowell McAdam, had been sent by the mayors and they have urged the company to provide a brief explanation for why it is unable to provide a high-speed network and why it has not completed its FiOS internet network across the northeast.

Defending the same, Verizon has stated that it has met all the requirements and the present situation has been misinterpreted by the mayors. Verizon feels there has been some kind of miscommunication amongst the mayors. The letter has come at a point when Verizon has continued to negotiate a 3-year contract which is comprised of 39000 unionized workers recognized by Communication Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

The unions of Verizon previously threatened that they will go on strike but later they decided not to do so when the contract expired. Regardless of this, neither party has been unable to agree on job security protection as well as an employee benefit. A million residents in the Northeast have been left without FiOS Internet service that was planned by Verizon, according to the letter sent by the mayor. Verizon failed to meet legislative and other deadlines and in some cases, to make the services available after which Verizon refused to build the network altogether.

In addition, the letter also says that Verizon has been abandoning its traditional copper-based network and has stopped providing needful services to its subscribers. In certain cases, it states, “traditional landline customers are experiencing frequent service outages, delays in repairs and installations, and forced migration to the inferior” products.

Defending their company, Verizon spokesperson, John J. Bonomo said, “Since Verizon started bargaining this year with the CWA, we’ve seen numerous half-baked and inaccurate letters and statements from union leaders regarding Verizon’s FiOS commitments and more. It’s all nonsense.” He also added, “The reality is that all of these misguided PR stunts are an attempt by union leaders to try and force the company to hire more union-represented employees which will, in turn, increase dues and revenues for the union. It won’t work.”