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Cellco Partnership, doing business as Verizon Wireless, owns and
operates the second largest wireless telecommunications network in
the United States, based on total wireless customers. Based on
revenue, Verizon Wireless is the largest American wireless company
and largest wireless data provider. As of July 2007, the company
served a total of 62.1 million U.S. subscribers and had an annual
revenue of $38 billion. Headquartered in Basking Ridge, New Jersey,
the company is a joint venture of Verizon Communications and
Vodafone Group, with 55 and 45 percent ownership respectively.
Verizon Wireless traces its roots to Bell Atlantic Mobile, NYNEX
Mobile Communications, AirTouch Communications, PrimeCo
Communications, and GTE Mobilnet. Bell Atlantic Mobile and NYNEX
Mobile Communications merged in 1995 to create Bell Atlantic-NYNEX
Mobile, and in 1997 their namesake Baby Bell parents followed suit
to form the new Bell Atlantic and their wireless subsidiary was
renamed Bell Atlantic Mobile. Bell Atlantic Mobile and NYNEX Mobile
Communications was created from Advanced Mobile Phone Service, Inc.,
which was a subsidiary of AT&T created in 1978 to provide cellular
service nationwide. AMPS, Inc. was divided among the RBOCs as part
of the Bell System Divestiture.
Meanwhile, in June 1999, AirTouch Communications of San Francisco,
California merged with UK-based Vodafone Group Plc, forming Vodafone
AirTouch Plc. In September 1999, Vodafone AirTouch announced a
$90-billion joint venture with Bell Atlantic Corp. to be called
Verizon Wireless, and which would be comprised of the two companies'
U.S. wireless assets: Bell Atlantic Mobile and AirTouch Paging. This
wireless joint venture received regulatory approval in six months,
and began operations as Verizon Wireless on April 4, 2000. On June
30, 2000, the addition of GTE Wireless' assets, in connection with
the merger of Bell Atlantic and GTE to form Verizon Communications,
made Verizon Wireless the nation's largest wireless communications
provider (until Cingular's acquisition of AT&T Wireless in 2004).
For the joint venture, Verizon Communications owns 55% and UK-based
Vodafone Group (formerly Vodafone AirTouch) owns 45%.
The name "Verizon," a portmanteau, is derived by combining the word
"veritas," a Latin term that means "truth," and the word "horizon."
Together, they are supposed to conjure images of reliability,
certainty, leadership, and limitless possibilities.
Verizon is one of six U.S. carriers to use CDMA technology, the
others being Sprint Nextel's Sprint PCS division, Alltel, U.S.
Cellular, Cricket, Midwest Wireless and Metro PCS. Please see List
of United States mobile phone companies for more information. Aside
from the 3 generations of CDMA (IS-95, 1x, and EV-DO), Verizon
Wireless also supports a legacy AMPS network.
Verizon Wireless claims it invests more than $6 billion annually to
"maintain and expand" its nationwide CDMA network and support its
analog network. Verizon Wireless offers voice services as well as 3G
data services such as wireless broadband based on EV-DO, text and
picture messaging, over-the-air downloadable applications and
content from its "Get It Now" service, Video on Demand in the form
of V CAST (which allows customers to download and view video
content), location-based services, and Push-to-Talk.
On September 20, 2007, Verizon Wireless announced a joint effort
with the Vodafone Group to transition their networks to the 4G
standard LTE, a variant of the GSM standard.
Advertising
In 2000, Verizon Wireless advertised the fact that they were, for a
time, the largest cellular network in the country by showing people
using cell phones and then gesturing with two fingers, much like the
World War II-era "V for Victory" sign, to show that the person was
on the Verizon ("V" or "iN") network. The slogan for Verizon
Wireless at that time was "Join in." (Reminiscent of the slogan
"Join in" was used in their marketing scheme up to this day. i.e., "iN-calling,"
"iN-messaging," and even the toll-free number "1-800-2-JOIN-IN.")
Later, Verizon adopted the slogan "We never stop working for you,"
with commercials depicting a Verizon employee roaming about in
strange places continuously asking, "Can you hear me now? Good."
(The "employee" is played by stage actor Paul Marcarelli) The "test
man" represents Verizon test technicians.
In 2005, Verizon Wireless added an "army" of network engineers into
their commercials in conjunction with the "test man." The "test man"
no longer says "Can you hear me now? Good." Instead, they have
adopted a new slogan "It's the Network." to emphasize their network
quality. (Verizon Wireless still uses the slogan "We never stop
working for you." from time to time — especially on their website:
http://www.verizonwireless.com)
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