Verizon Communications Company

Verizon Communications, the company formed last week by the merger between GTE and Bell Atlantic, cut the price for its high-speed Internet service by 20% for East Coast customers to better compete with cable providers offering a similar product. The Personal Infospeed DSL service from Bell Atlantic now costs $39.95, down from $49.95, in 12 northeastern and mid-Atlantic states and the District of Columbia.

Verizon Communications Inc. posted a 15% earnings increase for the fourth quarter as the shrinking economy did little to dampen consumer appetites for wireless, Internet and TV service. Verizon earned $1.24 billion, or 43 cents a share, up from $1.07 billion, or 37 cents, a year earlier. Excluding charges mainly for job cuts, earnings were 61 cents a share, matching the expectation of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters. Revenue rose 3.4% to $24.6 billion, just short of analyst forecasts of $24.74 billion.

As the nation's biggest telephone company, Verizon Communications Inc. has wrestled with growing competition from cable operators, a slowdown in its conventional land-line business, costly network upgrades and a weakened stock price. Now, some Wall Street analysts are questioning the rapidly rising amount of money Verizon could owe Uncle Sam. For years, Verizon has deferred certain taxes, helping the company's financial statements look rock solid.

Verizon Communications Inc. and AT&T Inc., the largest U.S. phone companies, are losing some cellular customers to carriers that don't require contracts, as the recession forces consumers to seek cheaper calling options. More than half of MetroPCS Communications Inc.'s new users, for instance, came from bigger nationwide phone companies in the fourth quarter, Chief Financial Officer Braxton Carter said.

The seat underneath Ivan Seidenberg is a hot one. Seidenberg is president and co-chief executive of Verizon Communications, a company with $60 billion in 1999 revenue and the nation's largest local phone company, with operations stretching from the company's New York headquarters to West Los Angeles. Verizon also has a presence in 39 countries around the world. That makes him a very busy man.

Verizon Communications, the local telephone company formed by the merger of Bell Atlantic Corp. and GTE Corp., said Friday that it wants to sell GTE's cable television operations so it can focus on new ways to distribute high-speed video services. Verizon said that for a month it has been collecting offers from companies interested in buying GTE's cable business, which serves 123,000 customers in California, Florida and Hawaii. It has not set a deadline for the sale.

Carlos Slim's America Movil, the largest wireless phone carrier in Latin America, agreed to buy assets from Verizon Communications Inc. for $3.7 billion to build its operations in three countries. America Movil will purchase a unit in the Dominican Republic and a controlling stake in Puerto Rico Telephone, Verizon said Monday. A company owned by America Movil and Telefonos de Mexico will buy Verizon's indirect stake in Caracas, Venezuela-based CANTV.

Verizon, Sprint and Time Warner Cable have agreed to block access to child pornography and eliminate the material from their Internet servers, New York's attorney general said Tuesday. The companies also will pay $1.1 million to help fund efforts to remove the online child porn created and disseminated by users through their services, Atty. Gen. Andrew Cuomo said. The changes will affect customers nationwide.

Launching another salvo in a bitter fight between phone carriers, Verizon Communications Inc. sued high-speed Internet service provider Covad Communications Group Inc., accusing the company of falsifying reports on service problems to shift blame to Verizon. New York-based Verizon, the nation's largest local phone company, filed the lawsuit late Monday in federal court in San Jose. The claim seeks an injunction against Covad, plus unspecified punitive damages and compensation for lost profit.

Verizon Communications Inc., the second-biggest U.S. telephone company, plans to do away with traditional phone lines within seven years as it moves to carry all calls over the Internet. The company will start offering Internet calling to its FiOS Web and TV customers in the coming months, starting in Maryland, Chief Marketing Officer John Stratton said Thursday at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Verizon Communications Inc., the second-biggest U.S. telephone company, plans to do away with traditional phone lines within seven years as it moves to carry all calls over the Internet. The company will start offering Internet calling to its FiOS Web and TV customers in the coming months, starting in Maryland, Chief Marketing Officer John Stratton said Thursday at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Just as federal regulators again hammer cable companies over fast-rising prices in pay television, Verizon Communications Inc. plans to reduce its bundled charges for Internet, phone and TV services. The nation's second-largest phone company, which controls home phone lines throughout Southern California's affluent beach communities, said it was cutting prices to keep customers from fleeing to cable firms such as Time Warner Cable Inc., the largest provider in the Los Angeles region.

Verizon Communications Inc. and two unions representing some 65,000 of its workers remained in talks after agreeing to "stop the clock" on contracts that were set to expire late Sunday. The New York-based company expects "business as usual" today as talks continue, said Verizon spokesman Eric Rabe. He said there was no deadline set for reaching a deal. Major bargaining issues include healthcare coverage for employees and retirees, wages and union representation for new job areas.

Verizon Communications Inc.'s second-quarter earnings rose 12%, the company said Monday, while revenue was slightly shy of expectations and customers disconnected their land lines faster than before. The nation's second-largest telecommunications company earned $1.88 billion, or 66 cents a share, in the quarter ended June 30, up from $1.68 billion, or 58 cents, a year earlier. Verizon said that excluding a merger-related item, it earned 67 cents a share, beating the average estimate of analysts polled by Thomson Financial by 2 cents.

Verizon, Sprint and Time Warner Cable have agreed to block access to child pornography and eliminate the material from their Internet servers, New York's attorney general said Tuesday. The companies also will pay $1.1 million to help fund efforts to remove the online child porn created and disseminated by users through their services, Atty. Gen. Andrew Cuomo said. The changes will affect customers nationwide.

The highest bidder in the multibillion-dollar sale of prime airwaves disclosed its plans for the wireless spectrum Friday, and the most prominent loser explained why it was still a big winner. A day after rules prohibiting participants in the federal government's online auction from discussing their strategies lifted, Verizon Wireless said it would use the new capacity to roll out faster wireless Internet service by 2010. Verizon outbid Google Inc., paying $4.

The highest bidder in the multibillion-dollar sale of prime airwaves disclosed its plans for the wireless spectrum Friday, and the most prominent loser explained why it was still a big winner. A day after rules prohibiting participants in the federal government's online auction from discussing their strategies lifted, Verizon Wireless said it would use the new capacity to roll out faster wireless Internet service by 2010. Verizon outbid Google Inc., paying $4.

Verizon Communications Inc. has grand designs for the biggest telecommunications market in the country. The New York company, which has for years been a distant second to SBC Communications Inc. in California's local phone market, last week announced plans to spend $3 billion over the next two years to upgrade its land-line and wireless networks.

Couldn't get to your voice mail at home or work Wednesday or Thursday -- or leave a message on some phones? Neither could any other California customers with voice mail on their Verizon Communications Inc. land lines. A database error in a central server in Ontario froze the software for all 740,000 land-line customers subscribing to Verizon's voice mail early Wednesday, and the state's second-largest telephone company couldn't say late Thursday when the problem would be fixed.