Verizon Readies Move on Manhattan

"I'm not convinced this will be all that dramatic," says Telecom Pragmatics analyst Sam Greenholtz. In a city like New York, with so many older buildings, rewiring the infrastructure will be a daunting task, says Greenholtz.

"They will probably start by going to new buildings under construction," says Greenholtz. "There are too many problems in the older buildings."

The news comes just a day after cable giant Comcast (CMCSA) provided a disappointing outlook for the year as competition from satellite rivals EchoStar (DISH) and DirecTV (DTV) as well as bundle offerings from AT&T (T) and Verizon cut into the growth of new service sales.

Strigl also shed some light on Verizon's new embrace of open standards for wireless devices. From Verizon's perspective, new devices, once approved, will be allowed on to the Verizon Wireless -- co-owned by Verizon and Vodafone(VOD) -- network and billed on a usage basis. This metered service, as you might expect, also represents a big revenue opportunity for the company, says Strigl.

Verizon shares rose 52 cents to $44.32 and Corning was up 56 cents to $24.96 in mid-afternoon trading.

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