Verizon's McAdam: Some wireline assets would be better off in someone else's hands

Verizon (NYSE: VZ) CEO and Chairman Lowell McAdam says that a potential sale of some of its wireline assets could provide the company with various operational and process benefits.

Speaking at the Citi 2015 Global Internet, Media & Telecommunications Conference, McAdam said that there are some assets in certain markets that could be a more relevant fit for another service provider.

"There are certain assets on the wireline side that would be better off in somebody else's hands so we can focus our energy on a narrower geography," McAdam said.

While McAdam did not specify any wireline asset markets it would sell, he indicated that the company could sell off some markets within a state.

"In the past we have sold off entire states, but I think there's an opportunity to trim out some markets in a state and hold onto other markets in a state," McAdam said. "That is a possibility for us as we move forward."

Selling off pieces of its wireline assets is nothing new for Verizon. The service provider previously sold off its rural wireline assets in 14 markets to Frontier in 2010 and its northern New England network to FairPoint in 2008.

At the same time, the service provider continues to migrate what it calls "chronic" copper customers onto fiber.

In 2014, the service provider converted 200,000 copper-based customers onto fiber in various markets.

"We're doing an awful lot of trimming back the copper and modernizing the network by moving people off of copper and onto FiOS," McAdam said. "That's a very positive thing for the customer and for us."

McAdam added that the company is also moving a lot of its lower speed DSL and voice customers to its 4G LTE wireless platforms.

"We're moving a lot off of copper onto wireless, especially for voice services and lower speed DSL and that allows us to have maintenance savings and give customers better service than they would have had on the antiquated copper network," McAdam said. "We're doing a number of things to prune the assets down."

For more:
- hear the webcast (reg. req.)

Related articles:
Verizon's McAdam says it is plotting a move into the online video market
Verizon's McAdam: We set a high bar for further FiOS expansions
Verizon's McAdam: Gap between broadband, linear video subscriber adds is widening
Verizon's enterprise growth will be driven by cloud, security, M2M, says McAdam