“We could have hired any messaging and strategy consultants in the world. We hired the White House Writers Group. We saw in them unmatched sophistication about communicating the mix of law, business, and technology to Washington audiences – and we were right.”

William P. Barr, Verizon General Counsel (2000-2008), U.S. Attorney General, (1991-1993) and (2019-2020).

In the early-to-mid 2000s, the biggest policy challenge facing Verizon (and the other Bell-legacy companies) was antiquated laws and rules impeding deployment of broadband networks. Verizon Communications engaged the White House Writers Group to develop a campaign aimed at regulators, journalists, think tank scholars, and Congress.

The goal was to explain to the Washington policy community how mobile technology was changing the telephone market and that regulations had to change with it.

Meant to maximize competition during the comparatively constricted environment of the landline era, the existing rules were now barring the strongest source of potential competitors — the landline providers — from expanding into the broadband market.

WHWG boiled down the new need to eight words: “Old wires, old rules. New wires, new rules.”

Over the next few years, we drove this message home to a reluctant policy community.

We also advised Verizon that they needed to reposition themselves. They were no longer a telephone company. They were not even a telecommunications company. They had become a high tech company.

Among the ways we got this “high tech” message across was to send CEO Ivan Seidenberg on a highly publicized tour of Silicon Valley. He gave media briefings, visited major tech industry headquarters, and spoke to a dinner that we organized with a selection of Silicon Valley’s most influential leaders.

Within months, major media was reporting on Verizon’s high-tech transformation.

Congress adopted reform legislation.

In explaining related changes in FCC rules, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission said simply, “Old wires, old rules; new wires, new rules”.