Verizon Business Emphasis on the Channel

Telarus partners with Verizon Business, a long-standing partnership covering wireline, wireless, and mobility services. Verizon’s Fios product offers reliability, symmetrical speeds, and support for businesses of all sizes. Fios franchise covers thirteen states in the northeast, with mobile and fiber alternatives outside the franchise. Verizon focuses on connectivity, cybersecurity, and productivity solutions, making investments in product, marketing, and the 5G network. The c band technology has enabled true broadband speeds across the country, transforming businesses and network consumption.

Introduction to Verizon Business

Alright, folks. Every Telarus partner knows Verizon business. They know the brand. They know the products.

But what they don’t know is what’s going on under the hood, how Verizon is investing in your future, the future of Telarus Partners, and driving amazing outcomes with many of you all across the country. Here to give us some great highlights about Verizon and how you can benefit from investments they’re making in our tremendous partnership is Mark Tina, channel chief and VP of indirect partner sales at Verizon. Mark, welcome. It’s good to see you, man.

Tim, great to see you. It is a pleasure to be here, and I really appreciate you having me on.

Yeah. Of course. So, look, we’ve been a long standing partner of Verizon Business. We’ve done some really great things together. In a company like Verizon, it’s it’s really this massive organization.

Importance of Telarus Partnership

Does the Telarus partnership make a difference? Is are are we important, or are we just, you know, a little drop of water in this big bucket of yours?

Telarus is an extremely trusted partner that is imperative to the success of the Verizon Business Group on a variety of fronts. And like you said, it’s been a long standing partnership. It’s been decades. And I’ll just say yeah.

Traditionally, it was a wireline, more partnership focus. However, in the last few years, we’ve also enabled wireless and mobility. Clearly, the industry is shifting, and, wireline is still a major play and always will be from a fiber connectivity standpoint and some other items. As mobility becomes more and more ubiquitous, I think it makes the partnership even stronger that we’re able to address any customer need, wireline or wireless, together as one.

Yeah. We’ve seen that balance of trade. Right? Wireline and wireless. And and really being able to bring that comprehensive solution for from Verizon has made a big difference.

Discussion on Fios Product

Let’s, you know, back up a little bit, talk about, you know, probably one of the most popular products in the channel or at least with Verizon is the Fios product.

Walk walk us through some of the advantages of that product, the Fios product for technology advisers specifically, maybe even across the different business segments because I know sometimes that gets pigeonholed into different segments. Walk us through maybe SMB mid market enterprise, how it’s playing a role in your portfolio and with advisors like, our Telarus squad.

Sure. So I’m very passionate, about Fios, and, actually, I do run our Fios, for business organization, both sales support and then certainly our all our distribution through indirect partners of the Fios product. So first of all, we love to call Fios the OG fiber network. Right?

Yeah. That’s right.

From the crown.

Literally over twenty years ago, I was been with the company for over twenty, so I remember when it was brand new. But the advantages you get from Fios really demonstrate unparalleled reliability. You’ve got ninety nine plus percent reliability on the Fios network. You’ve got dedicated two gigabyte up and down symmetrical, speeds, and you’ve got, obviously, an unparalleled service and support team.

And what I mean by that is, we’ve got technicians that come out and install the service. In the event there’s any kind of service call necessary, we’re there, we are reliable, and we’re very easy to do business with. And so you mentioned the different segments. Right?

Fios is awesome because it caters to businesses of all size. So our mass market teams, service could be a piece something like a mom and pop pizzeria on Main Street, barbershop, etcetera, as that dedicated line. We do scale into commercial markets. And then even in the global enterprise space, where you got, let’s say, somebody in the retail vertical that has thousands of locations nationwide, we can obviously power any of those retail locations through Fios.

The one thing to note with Fios is that our franchise is roughly thirteen states here in the northeast. Yeah. The awesome news is through our five g investment, most recently, c band, as we built out our ultra wideband network to be much more ubiquitous, we like to provide Fios, obviously, as the primary connectivity, here in footprint, and there’s always room for backup connectivity, as well. But then we also now have our mobile offering, fixed wireless access, also known as business Internet, to supplement Fios outside of franchise.

And then lastly, Tim, as you know, we also have other fiber alternatives outside, of the Fios footprint. So it’s it’s a very exciting time for Fios and our channel partners.

Ease of Doing Business with Verizon

Yeah. I I agree. One thing that you said that’s really important is ease of doing business. You know, sometimes Verizon gets a gets a bad rap for being overly complex, but sometimes complex solutions require complex actions.

Where Fios is a fundamental product, it’s easy to transact with Verizon. It leads to more sales or more wallet share. Once that’s installed, you can add on other services from Verizon. So let’s let’s segue to that really quick and talk about how Verizon’s thinking about how to care for customers long term, about how the advisers’ needs are growing, their customer needs are growing.

Verizon’s Approach to Customer Care and Growth

Right? We land a file steal. What does the expansion opportunity look like? Where’s Verizon making investments to help grow the cuss you know, better the better the customer outcome, but also grow wallet share?

So the landscape of our industry has evolved drastically, and I think that’s always been the case. Right? Every year or two, the technology changes, the industry changes. I will say, though, that the pandemic truly has accelerated, the need for connectivity more than ever before.

Focus on Connectivity and Security

I would say it probably ten x, the speed at which businesses were relying on technology. And so the way to I’d like to address your question is, first, we like to get in at the connectivity layer. Right? And we’ve talked about that.

That’s the Fios broadband connection, other fiber connections that we’re able to provide, or fixed wireless access. On the mobility front, right, that connectivity layer becomes the smartphone or the tablet. But then beyond connectivity, our business customers, again, on the small scale, up into mid market, global enterprise, even our public sector customers have come to look for more of a technology provider and not just, hey. I need a connection.

So, specifically, we like to layer on, let’s talk about cybersecurity. That’s something that has become more important than ever, where a business customer has to protect their entire infrastructure, not just their, landline or their corporate office. Every single mobile endpoint is a risk. Right?

So we look to invest, partner with best in class partners, no pun intended, to help us really uncover the need and deliver best in class security solutions to then protect that connectivity.

In fact, over forty three percent, of US companies out there say that network security is their top concern. Right? So we’re helping to address that. But now you’ve got the connectivity.

You’ve got secure connectivity. We also then look to go what we call above the network to help our customers focus on productivity. So different software as a service, network as a service, private networks are becoming more and more, you know, imminent out there and throughout the industry. And so there’s so many different ways we can help our customers beyond just that connectivity layer.

Investments in Innovation and Channel Partners

And what we do is we make investments. Right? We take on, different ways to consider innovation. We’ve just recently made a lot of changes in our product and marketing organization.

But I what I really wanna hit in on, right, for Telarus and also your community of advisers is that everything we do now considers our channel partners for distribution.

We want to increase our distribution to our indirect channel partners of all of our technologies. And so whether, again, it’s that connectivity layer, the security that goes on top, or anything above the network, as we build out a go to market go to market strategy for any product, we are considering how do we best leverage a trusted partner like Solaris in that motion.

I love it. That’s music to everyone’s ears who’s watching. Right? Because sometimes there was a bit of channel conflict.

Emphasis on Channel Partners and Trust

We’ve seen that go away over the years, and now you’re really doubling down on the channel. You’re making it easier to transact with, and you do offer a level of confidence. You know, there we have a there’s a lot of providers competing for attention of the customers, The the trusted technology advisor comes in place to help mitigate that risk. And then when a customer’s asking for something that’s bulletproof or reputable, there’s never been an easier way to make a decision than with someone like Verizon.

Right? Big company stands behind their their products. They bring in best practices per from providers around the ecosystem to be build on their paper if they need to. So there’s a there’s a lot of advantages to Verizon that I think sometimes we take for granted, so I love that you’re just exposing these hidden gems in the portfolio.

Introduction to Verizon’s c Band

One of those is Verizon’s c Band. You touched on it earlier.

Let’s double back to that. What should advisers I think it’s a kind of a great way to bring this to to a close and leave on a high point with Yeah. CBAN. What’s the opportunity? Why should advisers care? Talk to them a little bit about that. Let’s, let’s really get them get them amped up on CBAM.

So I talked about investment earlier, Tim. Yeah. I am proud to say, and this is a public number, Verizon has invested over one hundred and fifty billion dollars in the last three years to build out our overall five g, network. Right?

And that does consist of the c band spectrum, which was over fifty billion dollars of that total investment. And we continue to invest more capital, and we continue to look to accelerate the deployment of this technology because of how robust, reliable, and game changing it truly is. We already have over a million customers on our fixed wireless access business Internet connectivity, not to mention, obviously, the millions and millions of five g customers we have on our smartphones, etcetera, also taking advantage of that c band technology. So I will tell you, c band has changed the game.

Accelerated Deployment of c Band

We continue to accelerate that deployment, and we open up we call it OFS, open for sale, more and more business addresses for business Internet every single month, every single quarter, and we’re investing more heavily to accelerate that distribution. And then, of course, when it comes to our phones and our mobile products, like I mentioned, phones, tablets, etcetera, we we are open for sale in over seventy five of America, and we’ll look to complete that the rest of that deployment in the next year or so. So that investment is one that, we take very seriously. But for you as a partner, what a great option you have to be able to walk into a business and talk about the full Verizon boat.

Broadband Capabilities and Transformation

We can care for your fiber needs. We can can care about your mobile needs. And based on the investments Verizon has made in C band, we now have true broadband speeds coming over America’s most reliable network, and that enables all sorts of transformation in any business. Right?

Businesses are looking to connect and communicate in various different ways. A construction company doesn’t wanna wait for a fiber line to get run to a remote job site when you can get a router drop shipped overnight and all you need is power. So I don’t wanna go on and on about all of the use cases. I get so excited.

We get excited, and we hope our partners can get as excited about what you could actually do with a broadband connection over, again, America’s most reliable network here at Verizon.

Exciting Opportunities with Broadband Connectivity

Yeah. Look. There’s no doubt that it’s an exciting time in the industry. People are consuming broadband and network at alarming rates. You’re at the forefront of that with a very reliable network.

What what was it? You said America’s most reliable network. Right? So it’s it’s an amazing time for you. It’s amazing time for our partners. One thing that I I try to end these interviews with is, like, the thing that keeps you up at night or the moment where you you, like me, you’re interacting with advisers all the time. What’s the one thing that you you wish they would know or you wish they would do to to sell more Verizon, to bring Verizon products to light, sort of the moment that you’ve seen and you wish everyone else would replicate?

Importance of Partnership and Collaboration

Yeah. And I’ll I’ll give you one that is is from my heart and super, super, super, I’ll I’ll call it, key tenant of me and what I represent in our company. We are in a people business, and people buy from people. And I want everyone to know that we’ve also invested in our our my channel.

Right? The the employees that are out there every single day partnering with our advisers, partnering with Telarus. And so what if you mentioned keep me up at night or what do I wanna see more of, I wanna see more partnership. Give us a shot.

Let us ideate. Let us strategize together. You let us know what’s important because we take partner feedback extremely seriously. And I wanna make sure that all of your advisers and, of course, Solaris knows, you give us a call.

You give my team a call. And by the way, there’s a whole army of folks at Verizon behind us. We will take your feedback. We will do anything and everything we need to in order to continue to win in the market, increase revenue for Telarus and and for all of your partner community, create more revenue for Verizon, and in the end, deliver world class solutions for our customers that can’t be matched.

Encouragement for Partnership with Verizon

Hey. I love it. Mark, you and I see it. We’re on the front lines every day.

I see the investments that you’re making with your team paying off with our advisers in the field, So I’ll double down on your urgency. If you haven’t done business with Verizon recently or maybe maybe haven’t done business with Verizon at all, lean in. Get in contact with your Telarus team. Get a warm introduction to Mark’s Verizon team.

You’re gonna make amazing thing things happen for your customers. You’re gonna create great outcomes with the endless possibilities of the Verizon services. Mark, thanks so much for your time today. We really appreciate you.

Closing Remarks and Future Expectations

We appreciate the partnership. Looking forward to great things in the future. I know the best is yet to come.

Thank you, Tim. This has been awesome, and I look forward to seeing you out in the field. Thank you so much.