Slashdot has a story on a few fascinating statements from Ivan Seidenberg - CEO of Verizon. He managed to undo a fair amount of positive marketing in this interview, I think. In reference to municipal WiFi, he said:

The head of the country's largest phone company ridiculed San Francisco's interest in building a municipal Wi-Fi network that is designed to offer cheap or free Internet service throughout the city.

"That could be one of the dumbest ideas I've ever heard,'' said Ivan Seidenberg, chief executive officer of Verizon Communications, during a meeting with Chronicle editors and writers on Friday. "It sounds like a good thing, but the trouble is someone will have to design it, someone will have to upgrade it, someone will have to maintain it and someone will have to run it."

Nothing he said is wrong, but he said it in a way that's sure to set people's teeth on edge. The old adage about honey and vinegar comes to mind. Rather than ridiculing localities over this, he ought to be sounding out municipalities quietly - pointing out the actual costs, and offering to manage this sort of thing for them. That's not the dumbest bit though - get a load of this:

Seidenberg, for instance, said people often complain about mobile phone service because they have unrealistic expectations about a wireless service working everywhere. Verizon Wireless, a joint venture of Verizon and Vodafone, is the state's largest mobile phone provider.

"Why in the world would you think your (cell) phone would work in your house?" he said. "The customer has come to expect so much. They want it to work in the elevator; they want it to work in the basement."

I wonder if Seidenberg has seen any of the ads Verizon runs - you know, the "Can you hear me now? Good!" ones. Gosh knows how people would have gotten the notion that the service is ubiquitous based on those ads. Or heck - maybe this "Verizon wireless for the home" ad tipped people off. I wouldn't want to be the poor marketing schlub who has to answer questions about this interview, that's for sure.