By I.J. Hudson
A lot of organizations have different divisions, different silos, that don’t communicate with each other very well – or, not at all. And sometimes they seem to do it in a deliberate strategic way. A case in point is Verizon.
You may remember them as Bell-Atlantic, but these days they’re doing business as Verizon Wireless, FiOS, and just plain Verizon (landline).
Okay, let’s look at this movie 15 years ago. Verizon’s T-1 business was drooping because of DSL (several competitors). Verizon was faced with cannibalizing its T-! market to push DSL in the face of very strong cable competition. In the DC area, Comcast kept getting faster; DSL, not so much.
Fast forward to today. Verizon FiOS is trying to compete against cable – both offering bundled services (phone, Internet, TV) and each running ads that snipe at the other guy. And, at the same time Verizon has been fighting cable and satellite, Verizon has other in-house competitors – Verizon Wireless and Verizon FiOS. Wait – that sounds confusing. Of course it is. Verizon is fighting real competitors and itself – competition from its past and its future.
Why do I mention this? I’m a sandwich generation guy. I’m a baby boomer: older parents, kids with kids. Gosh, I’m a grandfather. And, because of my location, I’m caught between Verizon’s squabble with itself.
I’ve had a land line since there was land and phone numbers had five digits. I’ve had the same number for decades, even though I get an occasional call for Pier One Imports. (wonder why directory assistance hasn’t changed that yet?)
The problem is that my landline gets a lot of static when it rains, and then the phone quits altogether. We‘ve reported it a bunch of times. And every time it turns out, “the trouble is not in our set,” and after a few hours or a day or two, the “infrastructure” dries out and the dial tone returns. Privately, linemen I’ve talked to say, ‘hey, your lines and stuff are old. They’re not going to invest in fixing up the old stuff when they’re bringing FiOS to your neighborhood in the next year or two.”
That means I can:
1) Maintain my land line service and put up with spotty/no service when it rains. Gosh, how often can it rain?
2) Drop the landline and go totally wireless, like a growing number of folks. Not a great idea in my situation because cell coverage at the house isn’t great.
Does bringing FiOS to my neighborhood solve the problem? Only if I decide FiOS makes sense. Will I really have to give up the copper and depend on fiber.
Okay, fiber is not the problem. Did I mention I’m also served by PEPCO and have frequent power outages. That means if I switched phone/TV/Internet to FiOS, I’d be totally offline during a power outage – at the mercy of backup batteries, etc. At least with the land line (and the rain hasn’t killed my service yet) Verizon is supplying voltage that keeps the land line working even though the power is off. And you thought phones were powered by natural gas.
I’m almost ready to cut the wire – which wire?? And do I really want to leave copper for the land of fiber optics? Oops. I hear a beeping in the background – my battery backup is toast. Time for the generator.
Two steps forward; one step back. How's the cell service? How's the copper? Is the infrastructure sound enough to earn my confidence?
(Donald Trump !!!! just to get your attention.)
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