After starting with a fairly boilerplate introduction to Verizon (NYSE: VZ) at Citi’s 18th Annual Global Entertainment, Media & Telecommunications Conference, COO and President Dennis Strigl was asked right off the bat about the economy. That’s definitely become the issue of the week. Strigl’s surprise answer: so far, not much, “I’m not so sure what all the hubbub out of this conference has been this week… We have seen virtually no economic impact.” Any challenges facing the company have more to do with competition, said Strigl, than the economy. That was probably the most newsworthy part of a discussion that circled more around wireless (see more at mocoNews). Investors appear relieved, as the company’s shares have moved up over 1 percent following the remarks.

FIOS: “Always the question: can you move it (rollout) any faster” Answer: it’s limited. The company is confident it won’t be wanting for growth in this area. DSL customers are switching over and it expects to have some big city franchises in the next 12-18 months, which will allow it to get into more MDUs (multiple dwelling units). Selling points: more HD programming, interactive programming guides, etc. So far,  churn has been inconsequential in this business. “Customers love the bundles.” Company will continues to push bundles, including video from DirecTV (NYSE: DTV) when it doesn’t have its own offering. As we noted yesterday, this is a different message than Comcast’s (NSDQ: CMCSA), which is talking up customer growth through un-bundling.

• Citi Media: Michael Angelakis, CFO, Comcast; Bad Debt And Churn Climbing