Cell phone firms struggle to catch up with Verizon's success: "When Bell Atlantic combined its wireless properties with PrimeCo, AirTouch and GTE to create the nation's largest cellular-phone company, experts said Verizon Wireless might lead the industry in size but little else."

"In the last 3 1/2 years, however, Verizon Wireless has outclassed its rivals on a host of performance measures, an analysis of corporate financial statements from the last three years shows. Of America's six national cellular-phone companies, it has most consistently increased profits, lured new subscribers and invested in its network."

Network Investment
"AT&T Wireless has kept up to a degree. It invested $5 billion in both 2002 and 2001, but cut capital expenditures to $2.7 billion last year after it completed a major network upgrade. Verizon has invested $4.5 billion to $5 billion a year for the last four years." Or as Verizon Wireless likes to put it: a billion dollars into their network every 90 days.

($1 billion = $1,000,000,000) ... every 90 days. Do the annual math on the $5 billion and that's $13.6 million every day ($13,600,000/day).

Subscriber Growth
"A $40-a-month national Verizon Wireless plan includes 400 anytime minutes. AT&T Wireless and T-Mobile give 600 minutes for the same price. Sprint offers 500 minutes for $45. But in 2003, Verizon added 5 million customers to the three rivals' combined 5.4 million."

Tower Locations
"The company's network was one of the oldest in the nation, because it included Bell Atlantic, GTE and AirTouch. The companies had been in the wireless business since 1983 when the Federal Communications Commission gave out the first cellular licenses.

"'Coverage is about actually getting the (cellular) towers built,' said James Murray, author of 'Wireless Nation,' a history of the cellular industry. 'People with the earliest networks had the best towers in the best locations.'

"In recent years, local governments have gotten tougher on granting zoning and other permits for cellular towers. Murray said this has hurt newer phone companies that didn't get towers constructed in the 1980s and early 1990s."