Verizon


Verizon Communications Inc., is an American telecommunications company headquartered in New York City. It is the world's second-largest telecommunications company by revenue and its mobile network is the largest wireless carrier in the United States, with 146.1 million subscribers as of June 30, 2025.
The company was formed in 1983 as Bell Atlantic as a result of the breakup of the Bell System into seven companies, each a Regional Bell Operating Company, commonly referred to as "Baby Bells." The company was originally headquartered in Philadelphia and operated in the states of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia.
In 1997, Bell Atlantic expanded into New York and the New England states by merging with fellow Baby Bell NYNEX. While Bell Atlantic was the surviving company, the merged company moved its headquarters from Philadelphia to NYNEX's old headquarters in New York City. In 2000, Bell Atlantic acquired GTE, which operated telecommunications companies across most of the rest of the country not already in Bell Atlantic's footprint. Bell Atlantic, the surviving entity, changed its name to Verizon, a portmanteau of veritas and horizon.
In 2015, Verizon expanded into content ownership by acquiring AOL, and two years later, it acquired Yahoo! Inc. AOL and Yahoo were amalgamated into a new division named Oath Inc., which was rebranded as Verizon Media in January 2019, and was spun off and rebranded to Yahoo! Inc. after its sale to Apollo Global Management.
, Verizon is one of three remaining companies with roots in the former Baby Bells. The other two, like Verizon, exist as a result of mergers among fellow former Baby Bell members. SBC Communications bought the Bells' former parent AT&T Corporation and took on the AT&T name, and CenturyLink acquired Qwest in 2011 and later became Lumen Technologies in 2020.

History

Bell Atlantic and mergers with NYNEX, GTE and Vodafone (1984–2002)

In 1983, the US Department of Justice came to a settlement with the original AT&T to break up the Bell System. Bell Atlantic Corporation was created as one of the original "Baby Bell" Regional Bell Operating Companies in 1984.
Bell Atlantic's original roster of operating companies included:
In 1996, CEO and Chairman Raymond W. Smith orchestrated Bell Atlantic's merger with fellow Baby Bell NYNEX, which had received New York Telephone and New England Telephone in the breakup. When it merged, it moved its corporate headquarters from Philadelphia to New York City. NYNEX was consolidated into the Bell Atlantic name by 1997.
In April 2000, two months before the Federal Communications Commission gave final approval on the formation of Verizon Communications, Bell Atlantic formed Verizon Wireless in a joint venture with the British telecommunications company Vodafone, which owned the mobile operator AirTouch. The companies established Verizon Wireless as its own business operated by Bell Atlantic, which owned 55% of the venture. Vodafone retained 45% of the company. The deal was valued at approximately $70 billion and created a mobile carrier with 23 million customers. Verizon Wireless merged Bell Atlantic's wireless network, Vodafone's AirTouch and PrimeCo holdings, and the wireless division of GTE. Due to its size, Verizon Wireless was able to offer national coverage at competitive rates, giving it an advantage over regional providers typical of the time.
Bell Atlantic changed its name to Verizon Communications in June 2000, when the FCC approved the US$64.7 billion merger with telephone company GTE, nearly two years after the deal was proposed in July 1998. The merger was announced on April 4. The name Verizon derives from the combination of the words veritas, Latin for truth, and horizon.
The approval came with 25 stipulations to preserve competition between local phone carriers, including investing in new markets and broadband technologies. The new entity was headed by co-CEOs Charles Lee, former CEO of GTE, and Bell Atlantic CEO Ivan Seidenberg.
Verizon became the largest local telephone company in the United States, operating 63 million telephone lines in 40 states. The company also inherited 25 million mobile phone customers. Additionally, Verizon offered internet services and long-distance calling in New York, before expanding long-distance operations to other states.
Approximately 85,000 Verizon workers went on an 18-day labor strike in August 2000 after their union contracts expired. The strike affected quarterly revenues, resulting in Verizon Wireless's postponement of the company's initial public offering , and created a backlog of repairs. This strike did not involve all company employees, as most line technicians and user technicians of the company are in a union.
Verizon launched 3G service in 2002, which doubled the Internet speed of the time to 144 kb per second. In August 2002, Verizon began offering local, long-distance, and mobile calling, as well as Internet service, in a bundle. It was initially only available to customers in New York and Massachusetts.

Early expansion (2003–2010)

The Dow Jones Industrial Average added Verizon Communications to its stock market index in April 2004. Verizon replaced telecom competitor AT&T, which had been a part of the index since the Great Depression.
Verizon launched its Fios Internet service, which transmits data over fiber optic cables, in Keller, Texas, in 2004. The company launched Fios TV in September 2005, also in Keller. Twenty percent of qualified homes had signed up by the end of 2004. By January 2006, Fios offered over 350 channels in seven states, including 20 high-definition television channels and video on demand.
Mail servers at Verizon.net were configured in December 2004 to not accept connections from Europe by default in an attempt to reduce spam email that was originating from the region. Individual domains would only be unblocked upon request. The move was criticized by its customers for disrupting their communications without notice, causing them to initiate a class-action lawsuit. Verizon proposed a settlement in April 2006.
Beginning in 2005, Verizon reinforced its focus on its mobile phone, Internet, and TV businesses by selling a number of its U.S.-based wireline-focused businesses and international assets. It sold 700,000 lines in Hawaii in 2005, and spun off lines in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont in January 2007, which were then purchased by FairPoint Communications for $2.72 billion. Verizon also shed its telephone directory business in 2006. In May 2009, the company spun off wirelines in Arizona, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconsin into a company that then merged with Frontier Communications in a deal valued at $8.6 billion. It sold its interests in telecommunications providers in the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and Venezuela to América Móvil. A decade later, it would continue moves to invest in wireless. In 2015, American Tower Corp. acquired the exclusive right to lease, acquire or otherwise operate and manage many of Verizon's wireless towers for an upfront payment of $5.1 billion, which also included payment for the sale of approximately 165 towers. Verizon used the funds from this sale to support a $10.4 billion purchase of AWS-3 spectrum licenses at an FCC auction. In 2016, Verizon sold its wireline operations in Texas, Florida, and California to Frontier.
Verizon began negotiations in 2005 to purchase long-distance carrier MCI, who accepted the company's initial $6.75 billion offer in February but then received a higher offer from Qwest Communications. Verizon increased its bid to $7.6billion, which MCI accepted on March 29, 2005. The acquisition gave the company access to MCI's million corporate clients and international holdings, expanding Verizon's presence into global markets. As a result, Verizon Business was established as a new division to serve the company's business and government customers. The FCC approved the deal on October 31, 2005, valuing it at $8.5 billion. Verizon's 2006 revenues rose by as much as 20% following the purchase.
USA Today reported in May 2006 that Verizon, as well as AT&T and BellSouth, had given the National Security Agency landline phone records following the September 11 attacks. That same month, a $50 billion lawsuit was filed by two lawyers on behalf of all Verizon subscribers for privacy violations and to prevent the company from releasing additional records without consent or warrant. Protesters staged the National Day of Outage due in part to the controversy. In 2007, Verizon stated that it fulfilled only "lawful demands" for information, but also acknowledged surrendering customer information to government agencies without court orders or warrants 720 times between 2005 and 2007.
Verizon won a lawsuit against Vonage for patent infringement in March 2007. The three patents named were filed by Bell Atlantic in 1997, and relate to the conversion of IP addresses into phone numbers, a key technology of Vonage's business. The company was awarded US$58 million in damages and future royalties. Vonage later lost an appeal and was ordered to pay Verizon $120 million.
In May 2007, Verizon acquired CyberTrust, a privately held provider of global information security services.
In September 2007, Verizon Wireless reversed a controversial decision to deny NARAL Pro-Choice America a short code through which the organization could text consumers who had signed up for messaging from the group. The company had initially refused the group access to a code by reserving the right to block "controversial or unsavory" messages.
Verizon opened its networks to third party apps and devices for the first time in 2007, a decision that allowed it to participate in the FCC's 2008 700 MHz auction of "open access" spectrum. During that auction, the company bid $9.4 billion and won the bulk of national and local licenses for airwaves reaching approximately 469 million people. Verizon utilized the increased spectrum for its 4G service.
Verizon acquired Rural Cellular Corp. for $2.7 billion in cash and assumed debt in 2008. That summer, Verizon announced it would purchase wireless carrier Alltel for $28.1 billion. The acquisition included 13 million customers, which allowed Verizon Wireless to surpass AT&T in number of customers and reach new markets in rural areas.
4chan began receiving reports on February 4, 2010, from Verizon Wireless customers that were having difficulties accessing the site's image boards. Administrators of the site found that only traffic on port 80 to the boards.4chan.org domain was affected, leading them to believe the block was intentional. On February 7, 2010, Verizon Wireless confirmed that 4chan.org was "explicitly blocked" after Verizon's security and external experts detected sweep attacks coming from an IP address associated with the 4chan network. Traffic was restored several days later.
The chairmen of Verizon and Google agreed that network neutrality should be defined and limited in August 2010.
In October 2010, Verizon Wireless paid $77.8 million in refunds and FCC penalties for overcharging 15 million customers for data services. The company stated the overcharges were accidental and only amounted to a few dollars per customer.
Verizon introduced its 4G LTE network in 38 markets, as well as airports in seven additional cities in December 2010. The company planned on a three-year continuous expansion of the 4G service.