Verizon’s coming “mobile-first” subscription video service will be network-agnostic, but will “work best” on those operated by the carrier, Marni Walden, EVP and president of product innovation and new business at Verizon, said.

Walden (pictured), speaking Tuesday on conference call following Verizon’s completed acquisition of AOL, shed some light on that OTT offering, noting it will feature on-demand and some live TV when it launches later this summer.

It will run on any network, including those run by competitors, but “will work best on Verizon networks,” she said. 

Walden also confirmed that “ad-sponsored data” will be part of Verizon’s new offering, and that the carrier believes it is “well within the ability to do that” in the wake of the FCC’s new network neutrality rules.

In addition to ad-supported products, Verizon will also offer “some premium offers as we evolve the product,” she said, noting that there are no current plans to provide the service outside the U.S.

Walden said some live content will be delivered on the service via Verizon Wireless’s network using bandwidth-friendly LTE multicast techniques. Instead of delivering unicast streams to each person viewing the video, multicast will rely on a dedicated portion of LTE spectrum to deliver live video to multiple devices that are connected to an individual cell site.

Verizon has announced several content partners for the new service, including ACC Digital Network, Campus Insiders, CBS Sports, ESPN, 120 Sports and Awesomeness TV. 

Verizon Communications continues to be a champion of LTE multicast, viewing the technology as “pivotal” to the mobile distribution of video and other forms of data, company EVP and CFO Fran Shammo said Tuesday at the Oppenheimer 17th Annual Technology, Internet & Communications Conference in Boston.

Although the technology is about a year out for Verizon, as it starts to embed it in chips in the fourth quarter of this year, it has the potential to deliver video to “millions of customers” without gobbling up all of the carrier’s spectrum and network capacity, he said, according to a transcript of his Q&A at the event.

“Multicast technology…is really, I think, the pivotal point that starts to change the way content is delivered over a mobile handset, which opens up content into the wireless world,” Shammo said.

On Verizon’s second quarter call last month, Shammo said Verizon Wireless plans to “go commercial” with an LTE multicast product as early as next year. LTE Multicast can deliver live TV signals wirelessly to mobile devices more efficiently than unicast delivery because multiple users can watch the same multicast stream being delivered from a cell site. Verizon demonstrated LTE Multicast in January in New York in the week leading up to the Super Bowl matchup between the Seattle Seahawks and the Denver Broncos.

Shammo said Verizon has 98% of the country covered with LTE, noting that 55% of customers are now on it and generate almost 79% of data usage. Verizon Wireless, he said, still has about 42 million customers that rely on 3G technology.

“That in itself is an engine for ourselves and other carriers to upgrade those customers into a 4G environment to experience the video,” he said.

Shammo also addressed Verizon’s wireline activities, including its ongoing process of converting customers from copper to fiber, a project that got underway more than two years ago. He estimated that Verizon’s completing about 300,000 copper-to-FiOS conversations a year, with another 1 million homes left to convert between now and into 2015.

Among benefits, the conversions are reducing t ruck rolls, providing faster Internet speeds, and generating between $13 to $15 more per month in revenue, Shammo said. “So it is a quick payback when we do each one of these conversions.”

Shammo was also asked if Verizon will follow Windstream Communications and perhaps spin ome of network assets, such as copper lines in more rural areas, as a real estate investment trust (REIT), a move that give the carrier some potentially significant tax breaks.

Shammo called it a “really nice transaction for Windstream, but believes it’s a “more complex” strategy for Verizon to pursue. “We actually have looked at that in detail. We continue to look at that,” he said.

Shedding some light on its future plans involving the distribution of live video over its mobile network, Verizon Wireless plans to “go commercial” with an LTE multicast product as early as 2015, company CFO Fran Shammo said on the company’s second quarter earnings call on Tuesday.

“The network will be ready by the end of the third quarter to actually launch multicast,” he said. “We won’t go commercial with that until 2015, but the network will be ready.”

From there, it will be a matter of getting handsets out that can use the technology. Verizon expects to start to embed chips with those capabilities into handsets later this year, Shammo said.

LTE Multicast is a technique that delivers live TV signals wirelessly to mobile devices without gobbling up all of the cell site’s bandwidth. Instead of delivering unicast streams to each person viewing the video, Verizon’s multicast approach will rely on a dedicated portion of LTE spectrum to place the live event that can be seen by multiple devices that are connected to the cell site. Verizon demonstrated LTE Multicast in January in New York in the week leading up to the Super Bowl matchup between the Seattle Seahawks and the Denver Broncos.

Verizon also views LTE Multicast as a technology that enable the delivery of live events to consumers without the need for a separate pay-TV service.

Citing agreements with the NFL and IndyCar, Shammo said Verizon “will continue to search for…opportunities that make content available to  our wireless customers without a linear TV or satellite TV subscription.”

Shammo also expressed that such flexibility will be needed amid a budding cord-cutting trend that sees consumers use the Internet or wireless to access their content. Still, such deals require a new type of distribution rights to pull off, though Verizon doesn’t think it will need to own the content to secure them.

“We continue to position ourselves, but we believe we do not need to own content to be successful in this ecosystem, but we just need to get the rights for that content,” he said. “We understand that content providers want to be paid for those rights."