Verizon must remain invisible, says outgoing network chief after 30 years

What is essential is invisible to the eye, and Verizon is taking the Little Prince's words seriously.

That's the philosophy of Joe Russo, too. He's Verizon's Executive Vice President and President of Network and Technology, who says the best network is an "invisible" one.

And if everything is working as it should, you probably shouldn't be thinking about Verizon at all.

We're noticing the bad stuff only

And naturally so. More often than not, when subscribers notice their carrier, it's usually because something has gone wrong and the network's down, for example. If nobody is talking about it, that's often a sign the network is doing exactly what it was built to do.

Joe Russo will be walking away from Verizon soon and enjoying his retirement, but ironically, he almost wasn't going to make it in telecom at all.

Who is Joe Russo?

His first experience came decades ago during a summer internship at Bell Atlantic, one of the regional "Baby Bell" companies created after the breakup of the original AT&T. Instead of climbing cell towers or designing networks, he spent the summer in the basement of a customer repair center creating Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheets because he happened to know how to use a computer.

When he graduated from James Madison University in 1995 with a business administration degree, Bell Atlantic wanted him back. Russo wasn't particularly excited about returning to a basement office while the internet boom was just beginning. Companies like Netscape and Microsoft were making headlines, and the World Wide Web seemed like a far more exciting place to build a career.

Bell Atlantic, however, convinced him to interview for a different position and eventually offered him a job supervising a Network Operations Center. More than three decades later, he's preparing to retire after helping oversee one of the biggest periods of technological change in the telecom industry.

Witnessing the digital revolution

During his career, Russo watched the network evolve from copper infrastructure to digital systems through technologies like SONET, DSL, frame relay, ATM, packet switching and software-defined networking before eventually reaching the 3G, 4G and now 5G era.

His time at the company also overlapped with major corporate milestones. Bell Atlantic merged with NYNEX in 1997 before acquiring GTE in 2000, adopting the Verizon name as it expanded nationally. Later acquisitions, including MCI Communications and its internet backbone business UUNET, helped shape much of Verizon's current infrastructure. According to Russo, parts of those legacy networks are still operating today.

5G and 6G ideas

Looking back, Russo believes 5G remains the industry's biggest long-term opportunity despite criticism that it hasn't generated the financial returns many expected.

He argues the biggest mistake wasn't building 5G but expecting miraculous, immediate results. Unlike 4G, which quickly fueled the smartphone app economy, 5G is developing more gradually and he expects new applications to continue appearing for years.

That slower rollout is also making the telecom industry more cautious about 6G. Before another massive investment cycle begins, operators want clearer answers about what problems the next generation of wireless technology will actually solve and how it can generate revenue.

AI and plans for the future

Russo also expects telecom companies to rethink what they're selling altogether. Instead of simply charging for voice calls or mobile data, future services could revolve around AI processing, edge computing and low-latency network connections that support increasingly complex (and demanding) applications.

After more than 30 years in telecom, Russo plans to hand leadership over to former Deutsche Telekom executive Abdu Mudesir in early 2027 before retiring to spend more time with his family and on his boat.

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