Significant Issues

Significant Issues

[Name of the Writer]

[Name of the Institution]

Significant Issues

Verizon

Verizon has had some serious issues after dominating America's wireless market for over a decade. The profits and revenues of the company are seeing a great low over the past couple of years. It is unfortunate that Verizon's stock has decreased a whopping 20% of worth and is falling continually. One of the major issues that the company is facing is the pricing pressure. America has a large saturated wireless market and all the competitors are fighting hard to get a market share (Rappaport, 2018). Post resistance of pressure from T-Mobile, to offer a plan that would be unlimited, Verizon went in the direction of losing serious wireless customers.

Back in the day, Verizon was competing in the market based on its unbeatably good network. However, that competitive edge has lessened as T-Mobile has increased the quality of its network steadily over time (Barry, 2018). There are some studies which deem that T-Mobile might even have a better network than Verizon. The heavy competition from T-Mobile forced Verizon to offer the unlimited plan. That has helped the company retain and even gain new customers, but it has impacted the average revenue per user. Many customers who were paying more, switched to the unlimited plan. This also impacted the revenue that the company was generating every year.

Verizon is also one of those companies that have risen to popularity because of cable cancellation. However, the FiOS business is still for 10% of the total revenue. Nonetheless, this is also a serious threat to the company. There is no doubt in the fact that cord-cutting has accelerated over time. There are countless online streaming services available now (Neilson & Donaldson, 2017). To name a few; Amazon, Netflix, Hulu and Prime Video are some of the online streaming services that are giving easily accessible entertainment to people without the old school cable television. This new rising trend is making people switch and cut the cord. This fact is quite daunting for Verizon as FiOS television segment has been a significant source for the company’s growth. As the cord-cutting is getting worse, Verizon is losing more customers by the day.

Now coming to the issue that has not been documented by any of the articles. There are many customers who are complaining that they ordered unlocked Samsung devices form Verizon. The company claims that the device is unlocked and all the apps will be able to function properly on Verizon. However, that was not the case. There have been countless customers who have been complaining that the voicemail app does not work. They have to call their voice mailbox so they can listen to all their messages or check if there are any. Further, the app cannot be downloaded as it needs to be preinstalled in the Verizon phones in order to be used. This issue was something that the customers were not given any awareness about. This has made many customers question their loyalty to the company.

These issues have been taking a toll on the market reputation and standing of Verizon. They need to step up their game if they want to keep their position in the market. In order for any company to thrive in the market and further take steps, it needs to generate the needed revenue. Verizon has not yet fallen that behind that it cannot catch up, but the market is tough. T-Mobile has really stepped up their game in terms of customer services and network. Further, services like Netflix, Hulu and so on have also played a part in taking away the edge from Verizon. In order to cater to these issues, Verizon needs to come up with new and innovative strategies that can help them gain more customers while having a balanced revenue.

References

Barry, M. (2018). Verizon Wireless Communications: A Financial Analysis.

Neilson, C., & Donaldson, S. (2017). Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) K. Lynn, Ed. Request for Comments: 8163 Verizon Labs Category: Standards Track J. Martocci.

Rappaport, T. S. (2018). CoMP and Hybrid Beamforming for 5G MMWAVE: Recent results and issues to consider.