Verizon: Not Just a Wireless Provider for Your Smartphone

It’s safe to say that Verizon is a household name. Even for those who don’t subscribe to one of the carrier’s wireless plans, the company is well known across the U.S. But while most will think of smartphones and data plans when they hear the name, Verizon actually offers a broad range of products and services. In other words, Verizon is more than meets the eye.

“Verizon has a very strong value proposition across a lot of its assets that it owns or has acquired over the years—cloud switch offerings, security services that Verizon, as well as some of our managed certification and managed security services that Verizon offers over our private infrastructure and global IP network today,” said Michael Toto, director of global solution partners and distribution for Verizon Enterprise Solutions Group, during a video interview with TMC at ITEXPO Miami last month. “In addition, Verizon is also providing a lot of professional services to help us build a stronger portfolio in the market today.”

Interestingly—and perhaps tellingly—Toto made a point not to mention Verizon’s wireless services in the overview of the company he initially gave TMC. “Interesting I left that out, right? Because most people just associate Verizon with 4G and connectivity—obviously our strongest backbone is the wireless network.” But Verizon, according to Toto, has bigger plans. By applying its well established wireless assets, the company is building ‘powered by Verizon’ solutions alongside its partners and shareholders to create new disruptive market technologies.

You might be wondering what kinds of non-4G and connectivity-related disruptive technologies these might be. For one, Toto pointed to Verizon’s latest announcement regarding a service it calls Verizon Auto Share. “We are entering into the peer-to-peer sharing of economies space, and this year we will be launching our new product called Verizon Auto Share,” he said. The solution allows users to rent a vehicle anytime, anywhere, by taking advantage of existing Verizon technologies, such as its security services, cloud services, and partnered application services. The Auto Share solution will also give users the flexibility and freedom to scan a vehicle via a barcode, as well as track, turn on, lock and unlock the vehicle. “There are a lot of use cases that are available,” Toto added.

“It’s become an on-demand type of society—‘I want what I want, when I want it.’ So we view many use cases across dealerships.” There are lots of ways in which a solution like Auto Share is customer experience-oriented, and can help dealerships improve their customer service via staying connected a customer’s vehicle. The driver will receive maintenance status updates, alerts, and other activities or happenings, for instance. During car maintenance, customers could also be kept up to date on their vehicle’s status through the service.

Ultimately, customers want a highly transparent and interactive experience, and Verizon is building technologies to provide that.