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Survey reveals how American Catholics will communicate about Pope Francis' visit to the United StatesNEW YORK, Sept. 21, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Pope Francis will be visiting an American population that is communicating via their personal devices and taking part in national conversations on various digital platforms more than ever before. A new survey of American Catholics ahead of Pope Francis' visit to the United States shows that this will be a historically unprecedented communications moment. Verizon, which invested more than $1.6 billion in its networks since 2014 to help boost capacity in the regions where the Pope will visit and made specific local investments in both its wireless and wireline networks to prepare for the papal visit, sponsored the survey by KRC Research to learn what American Catholics are saying about Pope Francis, his visit, and how they plan to communicate and share about it. The survey asked questions about how American Catholics see the relationship between Pope Francis and communications technology, view the upcoming papal visit, plan on communicating about the visit, looking at the views of millennials, age 18-34, and Spanish-speaking Catholics in particular. Among the findings from the survey, key takeaways include:
American Catholics (78%) say it would be harder to give up their phones, tablets or the services we rely on them for (internet access, social media or streaming music) than:
A Better Network to Help Customers Communicate In preparation for this historic event, Verizon has spent the last year and a half enhancing its network to help customers in Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and New York communicate. It invested $1.6 billion since 2014 in the regions where Pope Francis will visit, building new cell sites, boosting capacity on existing sites and activating small cells in the areas where events will take place. It will also deploy mobile cell sites, including Cell on Light Trucks (COLTs) and Cell on Wheels (COWs), in those cities this week. In Philadelphia, where the Papal Mass is expected to attract between 1.5-2 million people, Verizon invested $24 million in readying the network, effectively quadrupling capacity in the downtown area. A distributed antenna system (DAS) was also recently installed near the Benjamin Franklin Parkway and Verizon is leasing space on this system, which also helps boost capacity. In Washington, D.C., and in New York, Verizon network teams have been working alongside officials in developing plans to support the papal visit. These ongoing meetings provided information vital to Verizon's plans to finalize network enhancements needed for the increased demand for wireless service during the many events next week. With the exception of the mobile cell sites, all of these enhancements are permanent infrastructure that will remain in place after the papal visit. The enhancements were already on the company's build schedule over the next couple of years; Pope Francis' visit gave Verizon the opportunity to accelerate the timelines to help customers stay connected during the events. Watch Pope Francis' visit on FiOS FiOS customers can view the live broadcast of all of the Pope's public appearances on the dedicated papal visit channel, FiOS channel 601 (HD) and 61 (SD). Customers in New York City, Long Island and Westchester County, New York, can also watch reporting, coverage and analysis on FiOS1. Survey Methodology Verizon engaged KRC Research to conduct this online survey among 604 Catholic American adults between August 27 and September 10, 2015. Participants had the option of taking the survey in either English or Spanish. Data was weighted by gender, age, region, education and household income to mirror the distribution of U.S. adults who are Catholic. Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE, Nasdaq: VZ), headquartered in New York, employs a diverse workforce of 178,500 and generated more than $127 billion in 2014 revenues. Verizon Wireless operates America's most reliable wireless network, with 109.5 million retail connections nationwide. Verizon also provides converged communications, information and entertainment services over America's most advanced fiber-optic network, and delivers integrated business solutions to customers worldwide. For more information, visit www.verizon.com/news/. VERIZON'S ONLINE NEWS CENTER: Verizon news releases, executive speeches and biographies, media contacts and other information are available at Verizon's online News Center at www.verizon.com/news/. The news releases are available through an RSS feed. To subscribe, visit www.verizon.com/about/rss-feeds/. To view the original version on PR Newswire, visit:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/survey-reveals-how-american-catholics-will-communicate-about-pope-francis-visit-to-the-united-states-300146279.html SOURCE Verizon |