A spokesman for Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) today told VON that the Bloomberg News report, which was picked up by the Los Angeles Times, saying that the telco plans to retire its copper plant and move completely to VoIP within seven years, is off base.
“We kind of wish this story would just go away,” said Jim Smith, director of media relations for Verizon Telecom, of the piece quoting Verizon CMO John Stratton, with whom a Bloomberg reporter spoke at last week’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES). Smith added that a public relations person from the wireless side of Verizon was present at the interview.
Smith provided VON with a link to a blog posted today, in which Verizon spokesman Eric Rabe debunks the Bloomberg piece:
“First, neither John nor anyone else here thinks that the traditional, circuit-switched phone network will be a thing of the past in seven years. What’s often called the public switched telephone network (PSTN) is the world’s most reliable, high quality, landline voice communications system. The Verizon traditional phone system will serve customers for a long time to come.
“John’s point was, and there’s not a lot of new news here, that we see that voice can and is becoming an application called VoIP on broadband networks.
“VoIP is a logical platform for any company wanting to break into the voice services business, and hundreds of companies have seized on this technology to do so, including every major cable TV company. However, the quality of VoIP voice calls and the reliability of VoIP networks are in no way superior to the quality and reliability provided by the Verizon PSTN network. In short, there is no logical reason for a company like Verizon, with a terrific voice network already in place, to dismantle that network and replace it with VoIP.”
