PolicyBlog

The most important thing we offer? Our network.  When our network is attacked, or at risk of attack in a way that could harm our customers' ability to make and receive calls, or use wireless multimedia and data services, we jump to action. Recently, Verizon Wireless security and external experts detected attacks from an IP address associated with the 4Chan family of web sites that was disruptive to our customers and our network.  To protect both, we eliminated connectivity to the IP address. ... Read More

The 83,000 employees of Verizon Wireless are committed to improving the communities where we work and live.  Together with the generosity of our customers and even our competitors’ customers who donate their old cell phones to HopeLine®, our cell phone recycling and reuse program, we're able to make a difference in the lives of those affected by domestic violence. For the third consecutive year HopeLine received more than 1 million old cell phones. Since 2001, Verizon Wireless' HopeLine program... Read More

Tom Tauke, fellow policyblogger and, oh yeah my boss, discussed a concept at a Free State Foundation event last Friday.  The term he used (“Internet Ecosystem”) while not new, struck me as giving robust and honest context for the ongoing debate about “net neutrality.”   “Internet Ecosystem.”  It pays full respect to all players and all points of view, don’t you think?   To me, Internet ecosystem says several things: It says:All players, big and small, play vital roles. It says:All parts are... Read More

The nub of the Net Neutrality debate is about an open Internet and how to ensure its viability.  We support an open Internet for a variety of reasons and have for a very long time as I have noted in numerous blog posts like this one.  In fact, the “connectivity” principles which form the core of much of the FCC’s policy regarding the open Internet and even some of its thinking in the recent Net Neutrality NPRM are based on principles a wide array of industry players – including Verizon –... Read More

Bobbi Henson, the Verizon spokesperson who spoke to CNET for this story, disputes the accuracy of the CNET report. She said this tonight: “We have had a copyright notice and education program in place for some time now and communicated it to our customers and the public on our Web site back in April 2009.  This is not an automatic ‘three strikes’ graduated response program.   This program has been effective in reducing instances of repeat notices and has not resulted in the termination of any... Read More

As FCC officials mull the National Broadband Plan, it probably would be a good time to lay out some realities about where we are as we all seek ways to improve the future. Some proponents of increased regulation like to belittle the U.S. and decry the progress being made on the broadband front.  But the facts tell a starkly different picture (I think the authors of this Investors Business Daily editorial would concur).  First off, wireless:  Aside from the fact that the U.S. is the world’s... Read More

Posted by Tom Tauke, Verizon’s Executive Vice President of Public Affairs, Policy and Communications and Alan Davidson, Google’s Director of Americas’ Public Policy. (Cross-posted at Google's Public Policy blog.) Last night Google and Verizon filed a joint submission in response to the FCC’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on Preserving the Open Internet. This submission, which is in addition to the separate comments that each company filed last night expands on our October joint blog post. In... Read More

I was at CES last week checking out (and sharing via Twitter as @CZ) at Verizon’s Developer Conference.  Admittedly, I get as excited as the next geek guy about the gadgets on display at the Consumer Electronics Show, especially the very cool devices related to wireless 4G. (Like portable and mobile HD video conferencing, tiny 4G modem chips, and photo/video sharing). But it’s important not to miss the forest among all these very cool trees. Openness. That is, in a word, what is going on... Read More

Holman Jenkins has an interesting piece in the Wall Street Journal about competition in the video market.  What he says in essence is that “creative destructionism” (A term coined by economist Joseph Schumpeter in his famous tome Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy, to describe the process of transformation that accompanies radical innovation and its impact on markets) is a reality in today’s video market and few really appreciate it. I tend to believe too that with technology evolution, it is... Read More