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CWA: Verizon's Failure to Bundle Wireless, Wireline Services is a Competitive Blunder
Washington, D.C. – President Morton Bahr of the Communications Workers of America today spotlighted Verizon Communications' failure to fully provide the bundled services that customers want.
In a letter to Carlos Slim Helu, MCI's largest shareholder, Bahr said that providing fully bundled services is the winning strategy for the communications industry. Unfortunately for residential customers, Verizon does not bundle wireless with its wireline service, a definite disadvantage in both CWA's view and that of much of the industry, Bahr wrote.
This is a big mistake, particularly in light of the huge battle between communications companies like Verizon and the cable industry. Being able to offer wireless service, along with DSL, local and long distance telephone and other services, would offer a tremendous advantage over cable competitors, a position Verizon is unable to take advantage of because of its insistence on maintaining "a firewall between its wireless and wireline operations," Bahr said.
As MCI shareholders consider acquisition offers, CWA wanted to make certain that "the important operational issues of bundling wireless and wireline services" have been accurately described, Bahr wrote.
"Customers care about price and ease of use…that means discounts and one-stop shopping and service," Bahr wrote, adding that Verizon customers cannot get sales or customer service help from one source and must use different accounts and different websites for wireless and wireline accounts, among other shortcomings.
As CWA members, "the people who work at Verizon and actually sell service and interact with customers, we have witnessed Verizon's failure to provide any meaningful bundled services," Bahr wrote. It is important that MCI shareholders, who we hope share our conviction that bundling is necessary for success in the industry, have full information on how such services are – or are not -- provided, Bahr concluded.
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In a letter to Carlos Slim Helu, MCI's largest shareholder, Bahr said that providing fully bundled services is the winning strategy for the communications industry. Unfortunately for residential customers, Verizon does not bundle wireless with its wireline service, a definite disadvantage in both CWA's view and that of much of the industry, Bahr wrote.
This is a big mistake, particularly in light of the huge battle between communications companies like Verizon and the cable industry. Being able to offer wireless service, along with DSL, local and long distance telephone and other services, would offer a tremendous advantage over cable competitors, a position Verizon is unable to take advantage of because of its insistence on maintaining "a firewall between its wireless and wireline operations," Bahr said.
As MCI shareholders consider acquisition offers, CWA wanted to make certain that "the important operational issues of bundling wireless and wireline services" have been accurately described, Bahr wrote.
"Customers care about price and ease of use…that means discounts and one-stop shopping and service," Bahr wrote, adding that Verizon customers cannot get sales or customer service help from one source and must use different accounts and different websites for wireless and wireline accounts, among other shortcomings.
As CWA members, "the people who work at Verizon and actually sell service and interact with customers, we have witnessed Verizon's failure to provide any meaningful bundled services," Bahr wrote. It is important that MCI shareholders, who we hope share our conviction that bundling is necessary for success in the industry, have full information on how such services are – or are not -- provided, Bahr concluded.
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