From the Double Talk Department...

I don't know if he realizes it or not, but Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg came across like the neighborhood bully in a recent article in the San Francisco Chronicle. He seems to really relish the idea of making boisterous claims about how big and bad Verizon is, how they're better then everyone else (who is of course stupid), but at the same time expects too much out of his better-than-everyone-else company. Some of the highlights:

On San Francisco's plan to establish a city-wide Wi-Fi network: "That could be one of the dumbest ideas I've ever heard." Gee, it couldn't have anything to do with the city potentially becoming a direct competitor to his company's and probably providing a much cheaper service, could it? Sour grapes much?

On people complaining about "unrealistic" cell phone service expectations: "Why in the world would you think your (cell) phone would work in your house?" he said. "The customer has come to expect so much. They want it to work in the elevator; they want it to work in the bsaement." Well, yeah. That's why we buy mobile phones: to use wherever we go. And we'd like steadily improving service. Perhaps the "Can you hear me now? Good!" Verizon commercials give us that expectation that our phones will work everywhere. If you don't want us to think our phones will work everywhere, don't advertise them saying that they will.

Congratulations to the writer of this piece, Todd Wallack, for exposing Seidenberg as a first-rate asshole. I had no idea how predatory their fearless leader is. I never really had any bad feelings toward Verizon until now.