Thanks for your post.
That's very interesting. Let's be clear that this state of affairs -- no profit -- has nothing to do with the current patent litigation; it was the situation all along.
I can't help but suspect that some here believe it's all big bad Verizon's fault. But it's not.
Again, very interesting. I got the impression that some posters here think "competition" doesn't really exist in telecommunications, that the old Bell companies just run everything the way they used to, and newcomers don't have a chance. But we see that the marketplace is full of players. Let me point out that one cable player, Comcast, is one heck of a big company with lots of resources, and upgrading its network and marketing like crazy. Lots of people have dropped Verizon altogether (not even a plain land line phone) and switched to Comcast for all needs. (I personally feel Comcast is overpriced, but the marketplace disagrees.)