Surprise! Verizon has no plans to bring Data Rollover, Data Stash or anything similar to their consumers. You are surprised, right? I didn’t think so. In a recent interview with CNET, Verizon Chief Financial Officer Fran Shammo, shot down any thoughts anyone might have had about it being on the horizon. His actual comment was, “We’re a leader, not a follower.” Verizon will continue on their merry little way doing the same old things they have always done and have always offered, with small variants here and there.
“We did not go to places where we did not financially want to go to save a customer,” Shammo said. “And there’s going to be certain customers who leave us for price, and we are just not going to compete with that because it doesn’t make financial sense for us to do that.”
I love how he says it doesn’t make financial sense to them to save certain customers. I am sure it doesn’t on paper, but is sounds pretty bad. Verizon’s Q4 earnings came back with a subscriber growth, but saw the turn over rate climb up some and its profitability declined a little. They still added 2.1 million net new customers, but the turn over rate pushed over 1% ending at 1.14%. Heck, even their shares dropped from to $48.01, which is a 0.5% drop. While the pressure is there from competing carriers, the hard numbers still aren’t big enough to force Verizon’s hand to change anything.
Taking into account the most recent news from T-Mobile about the Smartphone Equality initiative, additional statements add up a bit more. Apparently 3 out of 4, of 75%, of Verizon customers are “high-quality” customers. Ya know, the one with high credit scores who generally can afford the higher prices for service and devices.
Mr. Shammo weighs in a little on the prospect of Google’s Wireless service too by saying that it is another example of Google “Stirring the pot.” Much like they have been doing with Google Fiber, stating it wasn’t about Google entering the internet business, but to spur higher speeds in the competition. He declined to comment on if Verizon talked with Google about a potential resale agreement, but he did state that Verizon won’t be following suit with Sprint and T-Mobile on the matter.
To put this all as simply as possible, Verizon will be Verizon and nothing the other guys do will change that.
Img via CNBC
