After mainly sitting out from offering cutting-edge Windows Phone handsets, Verizon Wireless appears to be ready to help Microsoft and Nokia: The largest U.S. carrier is expected — possibly in a few weeks — to launch a Nokia smartphone running the newest version of Windows Phone this year. Read more »
With the addition of 34 new markets on Thursday, Verizon’s LTE network will envelope 235 million Americans or three-quarters of the country population. Four months before the end of the year it’s within spitting distance of reaching its 4G coverage goals, while competitors play catch-up. Read more »
Network operators selling tablets in the past faced a significant hurdle: the monthly cost of data. With the Galaxy Tab 2 7.0, Verizon is ready to take advantage of its new Share Everything plans that let you use the tablet on 4G for $10 per month. Read more »
The decline of DSL in the US has life tough for the phone companies – who in total lost 70,000 subscribers during the second quarter of 2012. Winner: cable companies in general and Comcast in specific as 260,000 new folks signed up for broadband in the US. Read more »
Some of the biggest players in the mobile payment space including the four U.S. mobile carriers, Google, Isis, VeriFone and Intuit are joining a new mobile payment committee within the Electronic Transactions Association. It’s still too early to say what this cooperation will yield. Read more »
Silver Spring Networks is beefing up its energy data software services for utilities by focusing on real time access via software-as-a-service and the cloud. Read more »
Thinking about signing up for Google Fiber? Curious about those sleek black boxes Google is showing off? Here’s what each box does and what it looks like — the Network Box, a Storage box and optionally a TV Box if someone gets the TV service. Read more »
The FCC has come to a settlement with Verizon Wireless that will allow customers of the nation’s largest wireless network to use tethering apps from the Android market, and thus circumvent the $20 monthly fee Verizon charges for using a phone as a mobile hot spot. Read more »
Google’s fiber-to-the-home network may look like a loss leader for the search engine company, but its executive teams says it’s profitable. Here are the three ways Google has managed to cut the costs of building out a network and beat ISPs at their own game. Read more »
Remember when Friendster was the hot social network, publishers doubted that ebooks would ever sell, and Netflix thought DVDs in red envelopes was the future? We do — that was that state of digital media when paidContent launched in 2002. Read more »
The joint venture will operate under the name “Redbox Instant by Verizon” and will be headed by former Verizon FiOS executive Shawn Strickland. It’s still unknown as to what kind of programming it will offer and at what price. Read more at paidContent »
AT&T confirmed it’s seeing the same trend we saw with the iPhone and Verizon last week: iPhone activations lost momentum. In a note to clients, Wells Fargo analyst Maynard Um noted that it’s the second quarter in a row that AT&T’s iPhone activations have dropped. Read more »
For $300, people in the Northeast, presumably in areas where Comcast competes with Verizon’s fiber to-the-home offering, can soon get 305 Mbps service from Comcast. The fastest tier is expensive, but its the doubling off other Comcast speed tiers at no cost that will hurt Verizon. Read more »
In the coming months you will soon start receiving unsolicited text messages when storms hit or other natural disasters are anticipated thanks to a new wireless emergency alert system signed into law this spring. Here’s what you need to know when the alerts roll in. Read more »
Comcast isn’t going to let Verizon’s recent launch of a 300 Mbps speed tier go unchallenged. The nation’s largest broadband provider is apparently prepping its own 305 Mbps speed tier according to BroadbandReports. Yay for competition. Read more »
When it comes to speeds Cablevision and Verizon FiOS are the most likely to deliver better than advertised download speeds while any provider offering DSL — AT&T, Frontier, Windstream and CenturyLink– struggle to deliver on their promises. A new FCC report looks at how well ISPs perform. Read more »
When Verizon announced its new shared-data plans, it should have enjoyed a big advantage over its archrival AT&T. Consumers had been demanding the right to pool data, and Verizon was the first carrier to deliver. Instead, Verizon fumbled, and AT&T has picked up the ball. Read more »
Apple and Google still dominate the smartphone space, but look out for Microsoft, which finally has some muscle behind its mobile strategy. Meanwhile mobile-browser developers went head-to-head with native apps, and Facebook continued to buy mobile expertise via acquisition. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
I’ve been testing FaceTime over cellular data for a few weeks using the iOS 6 beta software. It works OK, but not as good as on Wi-Fi. Now, a new pop-up message indicates that carriers may charge for the service over their networks. Will you pay? Read more »
In cloud and big data, the second quarter of 2012 featured several high-profile deals and product launches that could reshape the marketplace for everyone. Google and Microsoft launched Infrastructure-as-a-Service offerings, software-defined networking took off, and all eyes stayed fixed on the continuing promise of data analytics. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Racemi, which specializes in moving business workloads onto and between clouds, snagged $7 million in second-round funding led by Paladin Capital Group and Harbert Venture Partners. The money will fund the expansion of Racemi’s sales, service and engineering efforts. Read more »
The DoJ seems to be the only thing standing between the $4 billion sale of spectrum from the cable companies’ Spectrum Co. to Verizon Wireless, according to multiple news reports. Read more »
Isis, the carrier-led mobile payment venture by Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile, is preparing for its big summer debut with the release of a series of video tutorials aimed at educating users on how to use its tap-and-go system. Read more »
Law enforcement and other government bodies, it seems, aren’t shy about asking for or demanding data about users from wireless carriers. All told, wireless providers received more than 1.3 million requests for user data last year, and requests are increasing every year. Here are more details. Read more »
Verizon filed its 116-page suit to appeal the network neutrality regulations enacted by the FCC. The suit has a glossary, 53 pages of legal argument, inflammatory prose on regulating the Internet and even the FCC trampling ISPs’ first amendment rights, but Verizon may prevail. Read more »
A new report shows Sprint customers are less likely to stay with the carrier when looking for an iPhone than customers who subscribe to AT&T or Verizon Wireless. However, Sprint does better a lot better in attracting new iPhone customers from prepaid or regional carriers. Read more »
Here’s our daily pick of stories about Apple from around the web you shouldn’t miss. Today’s installment: the young, spendy Apple demographic, how design patents have become essential, Sprint’s curious sales woes at Apple stores, Airplay as Trojan horse, and conflicting reports of Verizon iPhone sales. Read more »
Verizon’s newly launched 300 Mbps-tier is expensive. What’s amazing here isn’t the price, but the audience for high speed broadband. Verizon expects roughly 70 percent of FiOS customers to take speeds of 50 Mbps or higher — the top-of-the-line speeds four years ago. Read more »
Looking to buy a Samsung Galaxy S III in the U.S.? You have a choice among five different carriers, but you’ll either be waiting or paying more than you thought: There are stock shortages at two carriers, and the smartphone is priced much higher at another. Read more »
Discussions about the cloud now involve more than just the IT department. New developments in hardware architectures, more-energy-efficient data centers, regulatory concerns and simplifying analytics are all discussions currently circling through the industry. Here’s what to consider when thinking about your business in the cloud. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
On this week’s audio podcast, Matt and Kevin offer early hands-on impressions of iOS 6 and a discuss the pros and cons of Verizon’s new Share Everything plans. Matt’s Kobo Vox turns into a full Android tablet this week while Kevin is loving his new ChromeBook. Read more »
The Department of Justice is looking into the power that cable providers have over how and where consumers can access television content via the Internet. It’s a step that acknowledges the vertical integration of cable as well as their control over the last mile. Read more »
Verizon’s new “Share Everything” plans use one bucket of data for up to 10 devices on an account. Instead of buying a data plan for each device, one monthly charge covers voice, messages and data to be shared. And it will likely save you money. Read more »
Verizon calls its line of LTE MiFis “Jetpacks” and one of the newest is the Novatel 4620L. I used one for a few days and found it to be a vast improvment over my old original MiFi, also built by Novatel Wireless. Read more »
Arris and Kabel Deutschland, Germany’s largest cable service provider, have managed to field test cable equipment that delivers fiber-like speeds of 4.7 gigabits per second. While those speeds aren’t for the real world, it shows that cable can hold its ground with fiber. Read more »
The adoption of tablets, social media and new interfaces and the changing nature of the TV itself mean the digital living room will continue on its path of rapid change, thanks to new ways of creating, viewing, bundling, distributing and selling content. Read more at GigaOM Pro »
Bored with your 100 Mbps connection? Verizon plans to offer customers up to 300 Mbps down via its FiOS fiber to the home service. That’s double Verizon’s current top speed of 150 Mbps down and a slam against cable companies trying to compete with Big Red. Read more »
After waiting a few months, Verizon customers who own a Galaxy Nexus LTE smartphone should soon see their phones get updated to from Android 4.0.2 to 4.0.4. Aside from app-specific improvements, this version should boost camera performance and rotate the screen orientation faster than before. Read more »
Speaking at an investor conference Wednesday, Verizon CFO Fran Shammo said his company’s joint venture with Coinstar’s Redbox will seek to leverage the DVD-rental kiosk operator’s 30 million customers and not so much on Verizon FiOS’ nearly 4.4 million customers. Read more at paidContent »
LightSquared’s bankruptcy is the conclusion of a process that is rigged against broadband competition. Maybe it would have failed for economic reasons, but before it got the chance it fell victim to politics, spectrum warfare, and interests that don’t want more wireless competition. Read more »
