Verizon COO Strigl To RetireVerizon COO Strigl To Retire

Verizon President and Chief Operating Officer Dennis Strigl said he will retire at the end of the year. A successor has not been named.

Strigl has spent 41 years in the communications industry, holding positions with AT&T, Wisconsin Telephone, Bell Atlantic Mobile, and other companies. He was the CEO of Verizon Wireless until 2007, and he then transitioned to his current role handling the operations for Verizon's network-based businesses.

Strigl did not say what his future plans were. Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg said Strigl's contributions to the industry have been "legendary."

"Denny has the innate ability to drive success by fostering innovative thinking, motivating his team to put the customer first, and inspiring growth," said Seidenberg in a statement. "As a result, he has been a major force in the transformation of Verizon, positioning the company to lead in all our strategic growth areas."

Strigl played a strong role in transitioning the company away from the declining wireline business to faster-growing segments such as wireless. Verizon Wireless, a joint venture between Verizon and Vodafone, is now the largest mobile phone operator in the United States with more than 87 million subscribers.

The company is also in the midst of deploying high-capacity broadband networks that have the potential to generate additional revenues. The company's fiber-optic FiOS service enables it to offer a "quadruple play," where the customer gets home Internet, home phone via VoIP, cable TV, and cellular service from one provider.

The wireless unit also has an aggressive rollout plan for 4G mobile data networks based on Long-Term Evolution technology, and this opens the door for new services such as streaming high-definition video to cell phones, and faster USB data cards for laptops. The company plans to have a nationwide 4G network deployed by 2015.

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