Verizon Wireless 2006 Annual Report Download - page 41

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State efforts to regulate wireless services have included proposals to
regulate customer billing, termination of service, trial periods for
service, advertising, network outages, the use of handsets while
driving, and the provision of emergency or alert services. Over the past
several years, only a few states have imposed regulation in one or
more of these areas, and in 2006 a federal appellate court struck down
one such state statute, but Verizon Wireless expects these efforts to
continue. Some states also impose their own universal service support
regimes on wireless and other telecommunications carriers, and other
states are considering whether to create such regimes.
Verizon Wireless (as well as AT&T (formerly Cingular) and Sprint-
Nextel) is a party to an Assurance of Voluntary Compliance (“AVC”)
with 33 State Attorneys General. The AVC, which generally reflected
Verizon Wireless’s practices at the time it was entered into in July
2004, obligates the company to disclose certain rates and terms
during a sales transaction, to provide maps depicting coverage, and
to comply with various requirements regarding advertising, billing,
and other practices.
At the state and local level, wireless facilities are subject to zoning
and land use regulation. Under the Communications Act, neither
state nor local governments may categorically prohibit the construc-
tion of wireless facilities in any community or take actions, such as
indefinite moratoria, which have the effect of prohibiting service.
Nonetheless, securing state and local government approvals for new
tower sites has been and is likely to continue to be a difficult, lengthy
and expensive process. Finally, state and local governments con-
tinue to impose new or higher fees and taxes on wireless carriers.
CAUTIONARY STATEMENT CONCERNING
FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS
In this Annual Report on Form 10-K we have made forward-looking
statements. These statements are based on our estimates and
assumptions and are subject to risks and uncertainties. Forward-
looking statements include the information concerning our possible
or assumed future results of operations. Forward-looking statements
also include those preceded or followed by the words “anticipates,”
“believes,” “estimates,” “hopes” or similar expressions. For those
statements, we claim the protection of the safe harbor for forward-
looking statements contained in the Private Securities Litigation
Reform Act of 1995.
The following important factors, along with those discussed else-
where in this Annual Report, could affect future results and could
cause those results to differ materially from those expressed in the
forward-looking statements:
•materially adverse changes in economic and industry conditions
and labor matters, including workforce levels and labor negotia-
tions, and any resulting financial and/or operational impact, in the
markets served by us or by companies in which we have sub-
stantial investments;
•material changes in available technology, including disruption of
our suppliers’ provisioning of critical products or services;
•technology substitution;
•an adverse change in the ratings afforded our debt securities by
nationally accredited ratings organizations;
•the final results of federal and state regulatory proceedings con-
cerning our provision of retail and wholesale services and judicial
review of those results;
•the effects of competition in our markets;
•the timing, scope and financial impacts of our deployment of
fiber-to-the-premises broadband technology;
•the ability of Verizon Wireless to continue to obtain sufficient
spectrum resources;
•changes in our accounting assumptions that regulatory agen-
cies, including the SEC, may require or that result from changes
in the accounting rules or their application, which could result in
an impact on earnings;
•the timing of the sales of our Latin American and Caribbean
properties; and
•the extent and timing of our ability to obtain revenue enhance-
ments and cost savings following our business combination with
MCI, Inc.
Management’s Discussion and Analysis
of Results of Operations and Financial Condition continued