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Witness Testimony
Ms. Adriana Rizzo
Competition in the Communications Marketplace: How Convergence Is Blurring the Lines Between Voice, Video, and Data Services
Hello. My name is Adriana Rizzo. I am the executive director for eServices at Verizon. My job is to help develop applications that ride on Verizon's new, high-end broadband platforms. Or, to put it simply, I'm part of a group that gets to come up with the cool new communications gadgets that consumers want. At the same time, I help make our networks more accessible so other companies can develop applications, too, and make our networks even more useful to the public. * * * The world is becoming "all broadband, all the time." Around 24 million have broadband connections through cable or DSL. More than 150 million Americans have a mobile phone. And high-speed wireless networks are popping up everywhere. Overall, more than 100 million Americans connect to a Verizon network every day. To keep the progress going, we at Verizon are reinventing our networks around broadband, packet and voice-over-IP technologies. Today Verizon is announcing the rollout of fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) in our first city, Keller, Texas, just outside of Dallas. Once deployed, the slowest broadband connection we'll offer customers will be three times as fast as broadband speeds commonly available today. FTTP involves the use of glass, fiber-optic cable and associated electronics to replace traditional copper wires. This makes possible a vast array of new high-speed broadband services and video applications, along with our traditional voice and data services. The fiber link into your home or business allows us to do things that aren't even on the drawing board yet, because the limits of copper go away. Once this technology is in place, we also expect to be increasingly cost-efficient due to fiber's reduced maintenance and other operating expenses. One of the beauties of FTTP is that the technology will allow us to diagnose and correct problems, if and when they do occur in our network, much faster than today. Our plan is to reach 1 million homes by the end of the year, and potentially double the rate in 2005. We have been putting fiber optics to work for our customers for years, but its use has been limited for the most part to our long-distance and inter-city networks. We in fact already have over 10 million miles of fiber-optic systems in our nationwide network, more than any other telecommunications company in the nation. But until recently, it didn't make sense-financial and otherwise-to use fiber beyond big business. It was too expensive and too involved for mass, neighborhood use. Today, though, the technology for that level of use has matured. It works and it works well at the small- and medium-business level, as well as house-to-house, and it's cost-effective. Perhaps most important, our customers today are demanding the types of products that FTTP makes available -- things beyond basic and advanced data services -- such as interactive gaming, photo sharing, PC backup and telecommuting, as well as video conferencing, premises surveillance, and other novel video services that can be delivered on demand and in high definition. FTTP is one thing we're doing, but there's more. We are the first to deliver a true wireless broadband wide-area network in major markets, with 3G technology, known as EV-DO. It works a little like WiFi, but better. You don't have to be within a few hundred feet of a hotspot. EV-DO works over a much wider area. You can use it on a train or in a cab. We are taking wireless into the broadband age, and we are committing $1 billion over the next two years to expand this breakthrough technology nationwide. EV-DO will let people create, send and download content at broadband speed from their laptop while on the move. It also means people will be able to get richer, more visual services like video content, messaging and interactive gaming on their cell phone. It provides new, powerful tools to put their creativity to work. Through EV-DO, Verizon is opening up even more opportunities for other sectors of the economy like applications developers who design and package these richer services. EV-DO is already up and running here in Washington, and in San Diego. By the end of the year, we'll expand EV-DO to one-third of Verizon Wireless' network, covering 75 million Americans - providing wireless, high-speed connections instantly. With EV-DO, and other plans we have for packet technologies and fiber, we are enabling a new generation of flexible, highly reliable services to ride on our infrastructure-from voice-over-IP to video messaging, to virtual private networking, to multi-player games, interactive learning and lots of others. Verizon's other major role in the converged marketplace is creating the tools to help people use these networks. This is where iobi comes in. Most of what customers do to communicate can be done only in a single mode, on a single device. Voice calls and messages arrive by telephone. E-mail and IMs display on a computer or a PDA. And entertainment comes through a TV or PC. People end up with multiple networks and a briefcase or purse full of devices, and a desk full of callback messages. iobi will bring them all together for true intermodal communication. The essential function of iobi is to let customers use the Internet to manage and get information about inbound calls. It puts customers in control of their own communications, and lets them configure the network they use to help them as they see fit. The customer can make it happen themselves in real time, with just a click. iobi makes this possible because it enables users to interact with their networks through a variety of channels. And you don't need your own personal IT manager -- or a 13-year-old -- to set it up. It is easy to use and operate. You will even be able to use our voice recognition facilities to set things up, or to retrieve messages from any phone anywhere. The era of flashing "12-12-12"-like on the VCR-is over. iobi translates all your incoming messages to the format you want, where you want, and it works with phones, PDAs, laptops, and, one day, digital TVs. We believe ideas like these add immeasurably to the power of the networks we are building because they give the consumer more control. They make life more convenient for the consumer, cutting down on information clutter and lost time scrolling through voice mails and e-mails. We look forward to more ideas like these, including: · Peer-to-peer multimedia capabilities that will do for video what desktop publishing did for print; · Video instant messaging; and · Telemedicine, distance learning, virtual town meetings, and more. Verizon's broadband networks will be the platform for thousands of new applications and devices-some from us, and many more from new businesses that form because this opportunity exists. But most will come from customers themselves, who will put these technologies to use in ways that you and I can't even imagine today. In order to create an environment in which these innovations can flourish, we at Verizon urge Congress to follow the example set in the wireless industry: Minimal regulation helped create that vibrant sector. We think the same thing can happen in broadband. At Verizon, we're proud of what we're doing. We think our networks, our iobi technology, and the innovation we're making possible will send a jolt of growth, progress, and genuine excitement throughout the economy. The technological revolution underway is going to change our lives in ways we can only begin to imagine. I'm excited about this opportunity to build the future. Thank you. END Related Documents |
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