I think what lima is saying is the Verizon employee basically says "Why didn't you call us for comment before publicly complaining that we never answer our phones?"

CloudFlare is not a tier 1 carrier if you go by the strict definition of the term, just like Google isn't - but it's one of the largest content networks, reponsible for a significant percentage of internet traffic, with a global carrier-level backbone. Google and CloudFlare even tend to have better internal routing than most tier 1 providers.

They are not a carrier period! They don't sell transit. A Tier 1 carrier does settlement-free peering. They are a CDN. And no the most certainly do not have a "global carrier-level backbone." Argot or whatever they are calling their product is not an actual backbone with dedicated fiber, submarine cable etc. There would be no reason for them to invest in fiber and lightwave gear as they are en edge network full stop. Your comment shows a lack of understanding of how the internet actually works.