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"It's been a tumultuous couple weeks for Verizon, and now company CEO Lowell McAdam has canceled his scheduled keynote appearance at the upcoming International Consumer Electronics Show. \nVerizon said this week that a \"schedule change\" prevented McAdam from following through on his planned participation in a keynote \"Innovation Power Panel\" next week.\nThe telecommunications giant has dealt with a series of service and public relations blunders recently, but Bob Varettoni, the company's executive director of media relations, told Mashable Wednesday that McAdam's change in plans \"has nothing to do with any recent criticism of Verizon.\"\nJust last week, Verizon confirmed to Mashable a planned $2 fee on payments made via phone or web. The company said the new charge was meant to offset the processing costs of such payments, but quickly faced an intense consumer backlash online as customers charged the company with gouging and corporate greed. The criticism sparked an immediate reversal by Verizon, which canceled the plan less than a week after it was first reported. But customers weren't the only group skeptical of the move; prior to Verizon's reversal, the Federal Communications Commission said that, \"On behalf of American consumers, we\u2019re concerned about Verizon\u2019s actions and are looking into the matter.\u201D\nVerizon customers also experienced a series of service interruptions in December, complaining about data outages blocking 4G service across the U.S. Verizon released a statement last week in which it addressed and expressed regret about the outages.  \nVarettoni declined to specify for Mashable whether McAdam's scratched appearance at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) was due to a professional or personal scheduling change, only that McAdam \"simply can't get out there\" as a result. Given the event's status as one of the tech industry's signature annual showcases, McAdam's CES cancellation does come as something of a head-scratcher given that Verizon still plans to have a robust presence at the convention.  \nVerizon has said that another executive will replace McAdam's on the keynote panel, but not yet named who will do that. Verizon also plans to have several other executives on hand at the event and is co-sponsoring the CES Press Room. \nWhat do you think? Let us know in the comments."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2012/01/04/verizon-ceo-cancels-ces-keynote/>