Verizon: Customers May Cancel 3 Million Lines

Verizon Communications Inc., the biggest U.S. local-telephone company, expects customers to cancel 3 million phone lines this year through 2004 to switch to wireless, cable and Internet services.

Chief Executive Ivan Seidenberg and his deputies made the forecast in an Aug. 15 presentation to Federal Communications Commission officials, according to information posted on the FCC’s Web site.

The New York-based company had 60.4 million phone lines in service as of June, down 3.3% from a year earlier. The forecast would represent a widening from 800,000 lines lost last year, Verizon spokesman Bob Varettoni said.