"Thinking about the focus that Wall Street had on our strategy given maybe three years ago, there was a big question about will this $20 billion investment that you are making in FiOS pay off?" asked Verizon (News - Alert) COO Denny Strigl. "How can you succeed against the cable companies?"

 

"As we look toward the end of 2007, you begin to see that our FiOS (News - Alert) strategy has a good growth trajectory," Strigl said. "We have said that we would be EBITDA positive this year, operating income positive next year and net income positive the following year."

 

And Strigl says Verizon is on track to hit those milestones. "Nothing that we see will divert us from what we have told you a year and a half ago in terms of our growth plans," Strigl commented.

 

It is easy to forget now the pounding Verizon took for its fiber to the home initiative, which investors didn't like. But Verizon had tough and risky choices to make. Other service providers will have to do the same, at some point.

 

Three years ago, analysts widely thought Verizon might be in trouble because of cable competition, facing a no-growth future. That's changed.

 

There are plenty of challenges, to be sure. That's why nearly all executives are more concerned about over-the-top application providers than cable competition.