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Verizon VP: "keep your landline"
USA Created: 13 May 2008
This article showed up on the morning news list, but now it's already disappeared - possible reason: a Verizon exec encouraging people to keep their landlines.
Questioned on the topic of health hazards from wireless, of course the Verizon exec was careful to throw in the "no evidence" disclaimer. This particular one has a twist though: he states "to my knowledge", making it a personal opinion instead of the usual industry spokesperson referal to the WHO or ICNIRP - or both. No wonder this article was pulled so fast.

Here is the article, from google's cache:
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The Palisades Institute welcomed Verizon Wireless' Richard Lynch to its breakfast at the Rockland Country Club on April 8 - and guests exercised proper cell phone courtesy, switching their Blackberrys to "silent."

The company's executive vice president and chief technology officer had a dialogue with more than 50 people at the early- morning event, many from within his own industry, eager to learn more about what the future holds for technology.

Lynch, who began his career with "Ma Bell" at New England Telephone, has been with Verizon (NYSE symbol: VZ) since its formation in 2000.

"The cell phone business is one of the most dynamic growth areas," said Lynch, whose company had 260 million subscribers as of 2007. "Eighty-five percent of American households have at least one wireless phone, and more than 50 percent have broadband service."

Lynch said today's business person leaves home with three things: "The keys to their house, their wallet - and their cell phone."

Lynch said Verizon is getting ready to launch its "fourth generation" wireless network: It purchased MCI in 2006 and will use that network as a springboard for bringing Verizon customers in the U.S. and Europe together at no extra charge. Verizon's also going to the Far East, laying a high speed Internet cable under the Pacific Ocean to China scheduled to be up and running by the summer Olympics, opening up the company's Asian connections.

It is also branching out fiber-optic service - FIOS - into the Hudson Valley and northern New Jersey. Lynch predicts fiber optic transmission of phone, Internet and television will eventually become the most efficient, as well as proficient, means of telecommunicating and delivering service within in the industry.

FIOS television will be capable of delivering more than 150 channels - many of them high definition - by the end of 2008 and will "bridge the Internet and TV," said Lynch. For those hooked up to the FIOS system already, getting weather and traffic information via the Internet is part of FIOS' allure - not to mention its speed, several times faster than standard DSL service.

"It will provide the 24/7 operations opportunity so necessary to our global economy," said Lynch.

More than $70 billion is earmarked for a multiple-year period - approximately $17 billion in 2008 - and Verizon will be investing it in infrastructure to keep its systems in line with cutting-edge technology and to bring to its customers the three biggest innovations they are asking for: wireless Web, a shift to fiber optics that will open up broadband and the integration of digital devices.

"Right now, in order to keep up with all that is running, most people need to have an IT person in their home," Lynch said. "Simplifying the systems is one of the primary innovations we are working on."

Lynch is "not looking in the rear-view mirror" to see what's coming up the pike. In his opinion, current technology is tweaking itself and working to make Internet, cable TV and telephonic systems work in sync to become more accommodating to the end users.

Audience members expressed concerns about wireless' ability to withstand a major crisis - such as the one experienced during 9/11 when phone lines were clogged with frantic callers. Cell phone users, said Lynch, were not the only ones who had difficulty making contact; those who had landlines experienced the same "circuits are busy" messages. "What I can say about that day," said Lynch, "was that it began with a normal level of usage - then, there was nothing - then, it went back to a normal level of usage. What we learned to protect our service was to put half of the capability into fiber and the other half into microwave."

One audience member wanted to know when the company was going to be able to offer Apple's I-Phone to Verizon users. Apple has an exclusive contract with AT&T that will continue for the next four years, with AT&T, the only licensed carrier, giving 20 percent of its revenues to Apple.

Verizon, Lynch said, is working on its own "smart phone." As of now, "The I-Phone will be in the Verizon network the day. Apple decides to use our technology platform."

And, lastly, is the landline headed for the landfill? No, said Lynch.

"Verizon has a number of backup systems, and there is no reason our customers should not have one, too," he said. "Landlines are a good backup system. Ifyou have one, keep it." Lynch said anyone told that once they switch to FIOS they cannot get a landline back into their home or business is not being given correct information. "If you feel secure having that ability, by all means keep it and take advantage of it," Lastly, Lynch addressed health concerns raised by several organizations when it came to cell towers and the use of cell phones. "I would submit that sitting on top of a cell phone tower probably isn't good for one's health ... but aside from that, there has been no scientific or any related evidence showing an adverse affect on health caused by the use of wireless phones or cell towers. Towers are usually kept at a distance that makes them harmless to health, and cell phones, to my knowledge, have not proven to be a heath hazard."
Click here to view the source article.
Source: RedOrbit, Kathy Kahn, 12 May 2008 (w. comments by H. Eiriksson / mast-victims.org)

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