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To: Johnny Canuck who wrote (38552)	12/12/2002 2:23:21 AM
From: Johnny Canuck	Respond to of 69749

Reuters Verizon Wireless CEO says 2003 better for industry Wednesday December 11, 7:45 pm ET By Yukari Iwatani BEDMINSTER, N.J., Dec 11 (Reuters) - Verizon Wireless, the nation's largest wireless telephone company, on Wednesday said it expects the wireless industry to perform better in 2003 compared with 2002. ADVERTISEMENT "It'll be good. The industry overall will do better than this year," Verizon Wireless Chief Executive Dennis Strigl told Reuters. The Bedminster, New Jersey-based company is a joint venture between Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ - News) and Britain's Vodafone Group Plc (London:VOD.L - News). Strigl said he expected the industry to be helped by the resolution of issues related to bankrupt WorldCom Inc. (Other OTC:WCOEQ.PK - News). Earlier this year, the three largest wireless operators, Verizon Wireless, Cingular Wireless (NYSE:BLS - News; NYSE:SBC - News), and AT&T Wireless (NYSE:AWE - News) lost customers who were previously with wholesale partner WorldCom. WorldCom, which exited the wireless business in June, had been selling wireless service using other companies' networks. Its partners signed a deal to move customers to their own services, but they transferred fewer customers than expected because the subscribers had poor credit histories. Strigl also said he expected the wireless industry to do much better in terms of profitability, especially as companies like Sprint PCS Group (NYSE:PCS - News) have stopped offering low-end plans that require no deposits. Sprint PCS recently set a deposit requirement to its so-called Clear Pay plan after it had problems with fraud and non-paying customers. SEES SOLID HOLIDAY SEASON For the fourth quarter, Verizon Wireless is seeing a solid holiday season, he said. The company signed up 52,000 new customers on the day after Thanksgiving alone, more than double its usual average. The day after Thanksgiving, which fell on November 29 this year, is typically a big holiday shopping day in the United States. "How have holiday sales been? They've been going very well," Strigl said. He added that competition is tougher compared with the third quarter because more companies were cutting prices and promoting their services after Verizon Wireless captured about 33 percent of new customers industrywide in the third quarter. However, Verizon Wireless' service prices have remained virtually unchanged and it expects average monthly revenue per user in the fourth quarter to be stable to slightly up from the third-quarter's $50 level, he said. Analysts have been worried that the increasing price competition will erode companies' average monthly revenue per user. Strigl on Monday told investors at a Lehman Brothers telecommunications conference in Orlando, Florida, that the company expected to fare the same or slightly better in the current quarter compared with the third quarter, in which it added 803,000 new customers. Going forward, Strigl said Verizon Wireless will target business customers and plans to add more business services next year through its partnership with Microsoft Corp. (NasdaqNM:MSFT - News) About 25 percent of Verizon Wireless' current customers are business customers, but Strigl aims for 50 percent of the company's base to be comprised of business customers.