One thing to realize for the retained employees is that the wireline is coming to an end. It will anyway happen if not now. May be you lose the best choice if you dont take it now or You may survive for few more months/ years if you dont opt for SVP now. The option that some of the folks got for Infosys rebadging is not better choice either. You will regret your decision no matter what if you stay or if they let you go from Infosys. May be the bitter choice would be to go instead of thinking I wish I did that. Life will move on and we will for sure have better life. Job market is also good.
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keep on dreaming @5jpb
Been here 34 years. Like the previous posts why get off the gravy train now. In two years I will be ahead if I took the 60 weeks now. The RIF's from now on will all be voluntary.
No 2gvx. The spectrum is public property and the core company aka wireline possesses those licenses. For that matter they own whatever other assets that fall under the "Wireless" brand. Which is all it is.
@1xnz "especially as wireless is nothing more than a brand name that sells phones...and owns damn near nothing that makes that phone call work." another ignorant union troll....knows nothing about spectrum, RF equipment or IMS core
IXNZ you make some sense there. I could envision GOOGLE buying wireless and then leasing the infrastructure owned by wireline to operate it. The cost of entry needed to build out their own network would be cost prohibitive and largely foolhardy when they can lease or purchase an existing one. They have played around building their own a bit in some third tier cities but have found the costs too high and stopped some projects to the disappointment of some planned communities. Google likes clean hands off type work and wireless fits the bill as largely a respected brand with a large customer base with little in the way of physical assets even most of the stores are just leased and likely to go to resellers anyway.
@1rfu .. no doubt a troll. In reality, Wireline enables the wireless earnings. Again, the wireless signal travels the Wireline fiber/copper/Central Office.
Since Wireless no longer owns the towers, and very few switching centers, Wireless is essentially a brand with a customer database. Much like the long distance paper carriers of the LD boom days.
As for Google buying the wireless side. Yep, that could happen, especially as wireless is nothing more than a brand name that sells phones...and owns damn near nothing that makes that phone call work. Google could by the wireless side and do the same as wireless currently does and that is to lease back the network facilities from Verizon wireline and multiple other companies.
Wireline is still around? So thats what has been draining our earnings
If Google were to come in, it would actually be beneficial to both Google and VZ. Google already wants to wire up their Google Fiber nationally, could use all of the newly acquired XO and One Fiber assets to do so. For television, they can augment their streaming service with assets from FiOS instead of having FiOS work to develop their digital platform for other products. VZ wants a larger footprint globally, Google can be that company to do so.
As for the workers back at VZ (collective bargaining and non-collective bargaining), they could work with contractors to fill voids and ranks. Personally, I feel that you need established techs and engineers that know the US layout for backbone infrastructure, but they would rather take on the close-to-lowest bidder for that contract.
To all still at VZ, build up your skillset and make contacts with vendors. Prepare yourself if you find yourself still employed during the transitional period if a company does buy out or take over VZ. The same goes for those in unions and craft. Hopefully you have a good chunk saved up. There are a lot of contractors that are willing to take you on if you have the necessary skillset and a couple of years to burn before retirement.
All the fiber that runs the towers is done by contractors. Not vz people
Brooklyn ny
Rumor has it Google wants the fiber and spectrum. If your smart.... think.... why would they be trying to go skeleton? Google will fire all of us if this rumor is true.
@ifxw LOL I like how you put that. "make fortunes on a skeleton crew" That is exactly what I will be doing. I will leave here on my terms and no one else's.
The old Vz is gone. I hear they are shutting down any new video initiatives. FiOS labs testing video will be shut down by early 2019. No more FioS buildouts.
" the consensus is that once they finish with the larger riff's/buyouts headcount will be much lower and future riff's will be much smaller so they will implement the change in the package then. "
Why? If RIFs are smaller, seems like less need to downsize the severance package, less money to save and increased risk of law suits if you do so
There will always be work on the wireline side . You guys do know that wireless still needs wires . If it is still V Z that is another story . A lot of temp hires so that is the future , 3 year temps that can be let go at any time . Thankfully this contract gets me OUT and then some !
I have heard that for many years , and I still here at Vz. No sitting or wishing or hoping, just confident knowing I will be fine no matter what, I am staying.
No one is guaranteed anything in this new age of the company, to sit, wish & hope you will last 2 yrs is a huge gamble "better odds in Vegas" The only question that needs to be asked/answered by an individual is when do you want to be let go.... Nov/Dec "end of year"- when very few companies are hiring and job prospects will be slim or June when most companies are usually in full hiring mode. Talks of cutting the severance down to 1 week per yr have been tossed around since last year, as the saying goes "where theirs smoke, theirs fire" the consensus is that once they finish with the larger riff's/buyouts headcount will be much lower and future riff's will be much smaller so they will implement the change in the package then. This may be the last round for really good packages.... if they get 44k employees to take the buyout, the cuts going forward will be much smaller & more strategic.
Not true. Wireline (fiber optic) will always be backbone of network. Unfortunately this will all be owned and managed by frontier.
Take the initiative and find a good job with frontier before you have to contend with thousands of laid off people competing for one job
I will ride the gravy train for the duration.
Infosys is a better choice than being retained. If you're not working on one fiber and you're retained, you're on borrowed time.
Taking the package isn't always the best route. If you are able to stay employed for 2 or more years, you come out way ahead.