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	Discussion Board Verizon Communications

By Rick Aristotle Munarriz (TMF Edible)

Let's see if I got Chris's bullish argument right. Verizon has "spotty" customer service, he says. That's lovely. Since the company went through a 15-day strike the month after it went public this summer, I guess "spotty" would apply to how the company treats both its employees and its customers. If we're heading into a period where Verizon is going to have to compete to keep its local phone service mother lode, having a tainted brand name is clearly a liability even before one considers how far prices will have to drop to remain in the hunt.

Verizon is a dog. Actually, it's so "spotty" that it's a Dalmatian. Can I hear you sing, "Who let the Baby Bells out?"

Well, I stand corrected. As Chris pointed out, this new RBOC on the block has held up relatively well. While the incestuous pairing of GTE and Bell Atlantic was a marriage of laggards, Verizon has done well over its first few months of public life. It hasn't fared as badly as long distance, broadband, and cellular providers. Phew. That's a relief. It's a good thing the company isn't giving up its local business to go for these sluggish sectors.

Wait. It is. Just last month the company actually had to retract its application to provide long distance in Massachusetts. Was it cold feet over the fact that the federal requirement calls for the company to open up its local communications network to competition to get Bay State approval? Nope. It's going to work on opening up its own cages a little wider -- the ones that already housed 63 million unhappy captive local service users -- and apply again this month.

If Verizon wants to play the field, it is going to have to let its own customer bedmates do the same. That's just more pathetic patron-swapping, which will eventually drive this stock -- which Chris described as a beacon of "relative calm amidst a storm" -- right into the eye of it. Go ahead Verizon, see other people. One day you'll realize how good you used to have it.

How low can you go? How much will you offer to those who switch? Maybe your bad reputation will carry you through these lounge lizard days that lie ahead? Maybe not.

Chris is glad to point out how Verizon outlasted other high bidders for more airwave turf. Let me point out what gluttony did to British Telelcom (NYSE: BTY) in the European market pie-eating contest last week. Like our own Tom Jacobs wrote, "Telecoms are on the Golden Gate Bridge at gunpoint: Stand firm and certainly die, or jump and only probably die."

You, Verizon, on the other hand, don't have to jump. You don't have to probably die. You don't have to invest in the unrecoupable.

That "V" being tossed about in the company's wireless ads? If you're a customer, it stands for "victim." If you're a shareholder, it stands for "vulnerable." If you're Verizon? Well, you just met your own worst "villain."

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