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Verizon Wireless and its partner Vodafone Group will soon start selling the BlackBerry Storm, a touch screen smartphone, to customers in the U.S., Europe, India, Australia and New Zealand, the companies announced today. While they didn’t announce a specific date and talked about making it available in “fall,” it shouldn’t come as a surprise if the device hits the market really soon. Verizon is getting clobbered by the iPhone, according to some estimates. Vodafone felt so envious that it straight up copied iPhone screenshots and pasted them onto the Storm’s body, indicating that they still don’t have a clue on what iPhone is all about. (Photos below the fold.)

The Verizon Wireless version of the device will work on the Verizon’s EVDO Rev A 3G Network and (2100Mhz) UMTS/HSPA 3G along with older technologies such as GSM, GPRS and EDGE, making it capable of receiving emails and phone calls around the planet. The Vodafone version will have the same features minus the support for CDMA and EVDO networks.

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Cable providers rate poorly on both customer service and pricing, but thanks to their speedy broadband service, they have so far managed to score more customers than the phone companies, according to a survey out today from research firm CFI Group. The survey, which quizzed 1,318 households online at the end of June, measured consumer satisfaction with telecommunications providers. Continue »

Updated: The San Francisco Bay Area is living, it seems, in a protective cocoon of its own, oblivious to the current credit crunch and fiscal crisis that has been roiling the rest of America. This morning, while there is talk of a bailout plan being finalized, it hasn’t stopped almost everyone from cab drivers to doctors from worrying about the jaw-dropping sequence of events that has unfolded over the past few weeks.

I’ve been thinking about the impact of tightening money supply on larger technology companies. There are big players, like IBM and the telecom operators, who tap the commercial paper market to raise money pretty frequently. It seems logical that their ability to raise more money could be hampered. Curious, I got in touch with about a dozen or so big tech companies to take the pulse of their sentiment. So far, not many of them seem worried.

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Earlier today the second of two governmental hearings related to online privacy got underway. This particular hearing focused on deep packet inspection and how Internet service providers want to mine your data. The hearing kicked off with new data from Consumer Reports that said 72 percent of Americans are worried about their actions being tracked online. But apparently 61 percent are confident that what they do online is private and isn’t shared without their permission.

After the hullabaloo about NebuAd, which wanted to use deep packet inspection technology to determine where users surfed and then sell advertising against those surfing habits, I imagine consumers are more aware than ever about threats to their online privacy. But after listening to the hearing I’m not sure we will get meaningful legislation on this topic. Continue »

Will personal cell towers replace the giant monstrosities currently sitting on rooftops and beside highways? Manish Singh, a VP with Continuous Computing, says that may be the case with the 4G buildout. He spoke with me about the company’s new line of software and hardware for carriers deploying LTE networks, noting that those in North America and Europe are asking whether they should deploy citywide — or one consumer at a time, using femtocells. Continue »