Computer and Technology Blog |

The single biggest provider out of all the big boys of American telecommunications today, as defined by the number of subscribers, Verizon Communications is the product of a $52 billion merger between GTE and one of the Baby Bells, Bell Atlantic, in the year 2000. Verizon Communications conducts business in the mobile market under the brand Verizon Wireless, with over 87 million subscribers throughout the United States. Due to all the many acquisitions which form its corporate pedigree, Verizon Wireless is well-equipped with the massive telecommunications infrastructure of several companies: NYNEX, AirTouch, PrimeCo, and most recently, as mentioned previously, GTE and Bell Atlantic.

This latest chapter began during the years 1995 and 1997, when NYNEX and Bell Atlantic increasingly merged their operations, until finally reuniting as one single company once more after being broken up, over a decade prior, by the government as a part of the settlement in the famous Ma Bell anti-trust case. Then, in the first half of 1999, AirTouch Communications and Vodafone Group merged with one another, while in the second half of the year the newly merged powerhouse announced a joint-venture with Bell Atlantic, under the name of "Verizon Wireless." The word "Verizon" was coined because it combined "veritas," which is Latin for "truth," with the English word "horizon," and it was hoped that the resulting portmanteau would convey notions of reliability and limitless possibilities.

That merger received regulatory approval within another six months, whereupon Verizon Wireless finally started formal operations on April 4, 2000. It was at the end of June that very year that GTE was acquired, in connection with the merger of Bell Atlantic and GTE, to create Verizon Communications. The new company then started trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol of "VZ." This symbol was selected because it is made up of the two letters of the Verizon logo that best illustrate the idea of speed, further suggesting all the noble sentiments previously described above, with their long red lightning-like zig-zag.

Verizon Wireless is one of the two major American carriers that operate on CDMA technology, supporting 3G CDMA (IS-95, 1x, and EV-DO networks). The company says it invests $8 billion annually on maintenance and capital expansion of their national network. Both voice and 3G data services, such as wireless broadband, and text and photo messaging, are available. Other available feature services are over-the-air downloadable applications and content, on-demand video, push-to-talk, and certain location-based applications. Verizon is currently working on transitioning their network onto 4G LTE standards, clearly shifting away, however gradually, from CDMA technology, so as to provide for vastly expanded feature and service-sets. In one way or another, Verizon Wireless boasts of covering over 290 million people across the United States.