How They Brought You Verizon Wireless

The single biggest provider out of all the largest telecommunications companies throughout the United States, as defined by the number of subscribers, Verizon Communications came about as the result of a $52 billion merger between GTE and Bell Atlantic in 2000. It does business providing mobile services under the brand name of Verizon Wireless, with over 87 million subscribers throughout the country. Thanks to all the many mergers and acquisitions over its long corporate history, Verizon Wireless is heir to the massive well-developed telecommunications infrastructure of several companies: NYNEX, AirTouch, PrimeCo, as well as the aforementioned GTE and Bell Atlantic.

It all began during the years 1995 through 1997, when NYNEX and Bell Atlantic increasingly merged their operations, until finally becoming one company again after being broken up over a decade previously by the government as a part of the famous Ma Bell anti-trust settlement. Then in the first half of 1999 AirTouch Communications merged with Vodafone Group, while in the second half the company announced a joint-venture with Bell Atlantic, to be called Verizon Wireless. The name "Verizon" was chosen because it combined "veritas," Latin for "truth," with the English word "horizon," the resulting portmanteau suggesting certainty and limitless possibilities. The scheme got government approval in another six months, and Verizon Wireless formally started operations on April 4, 2000. It was at the end of June this same year that GTE was acquired, in connection with the merger of Bell Atlantic and GTE, to form Verizon Communications. The new company then started trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol of "VZ .This symbol was selected because it is made up of the two letters of the Verizon logo that best graphically suggest speed, seeming to echo all the grand ideas that gave rise to the portmanteau in the first place through the long dramatic lightning-like red zig-zags employed.

Verizon Wireless is one of two major American carriers to use CDMA technology, supporting 3G CDMA (IS-95, 1x, and EV-DO networks). The company claims to invest $8 billion annually on maintenance and capital expansion of this nationwide network. Both voice and 3G-speed data services such as wireless broadband, text, and picture messaging are available. Other abilities include push-to-talk, on-demand video, certain location-based services, and over-the-air downloadable applications and content. The company expects to convert their network into one operating on 4G LTE standards, heralding a gradual shift away from CDMA technology so as to offer vastly expanded features. In one way or another, Verizon Wireless claims to cover over 290 million people in the United States.