Why Verizon Sucks - This Slate hatchet job gives you four reasons (including a nifty new Internet telephony program), and I'd like to add a few more grievances:

Competition Killer - I long had a problem with the way our local phone company (the super-Baby Bell created when Bell Atlantic merged with Nynex) rode roughshod over competing DSL providers in our area. My first broadband connection was through Concentric, later XO Communications. When we moved to Arlington, I had Northpoint. In both cases, Verizon (who owns the bottleneck central offices) created the worst headaches by taking intolerably long to set up service. It's no wonder that these companies either went bankrupt or no longer provide home DSL. Of course, here on Capitol Hill we had no choice but to get Verizon's own brand of DSL service, which was hooked up in no time. Hmm.

Cable Scrambler -The history of cable TV service in the District is nightmarish, but the root of the problem can be traced back twenty years to the political deal that gave -- you guessed it -- Verizon the sole right to design, construct and control the system's distribution facilities. Years later District Cablevision still gives terrible service, even though Comcast took over the franchise, buying itself a whole bunch of problems in the process. Things have gotten somewhat better for people who can choose the competing service of Starpower. Since they're not available on the Hill, however, Jamie and I have become reluctant satellite TV customers here in the urban heart of the nation's capital.

Wrong-way Wireless - Verizon's mobile unit (a JV with Vodafone) may be the largest wireless provider in the USA, but it is consistently behind the curve on deploying the latest technology when it comes to phones and features. GSM isn't necessarily the better technology (neither was VHS), so there's no reason the CDMA phones offered by Verizon and others can't be just as cool and advanced. But apparently Verizon can't streamline the distribution channel to all us eager consumers, which leaves a backlog of ugly, unsophisticated phones on their shelves.

Back in 1996, the much ballyhooed Telecommunications Act was going to change the way we all communicated by opening up the broadband/wireless/landline industries to competition. The Baby Bells never wanted it to happen, and since then they've done a superb job of stifling innovation and keeping the US stuck in low-gear while the rest of the world passed us by. Think of it as the revenge of Ma Bell's kids, and Verizon is the biggest bully in the bunch. Want to hear what I think about Microsoft? ;-)