Verizon Wireless cuts international data charges
Verizon Wireless announced that its data prices Monday will drop dramatically -- to $25 for 100MB -- for U.S.-based customers traveling abroad.
Currently, Verizon's monthly charges for U.S. based users traveling to any of 130 countries $30 for 50MB, $75 for 150MB or $125 for 300MB.
The new pricing plan does eliminate the 50MB tier, but customers can now get 100MB of data for for 33% of the existing cost of the former low-end 50MB offering. Read more...
Verizon Wireless will charge you $30 to upgrade starting April 22nd, even when you’re already eligible
Verizon Wireless has announced plans to start charging customers a $30 upgrade fee, even when they’re already eligible to upgrade under the terms of their contract. This makes Verizon the final major U.S. carrier to do so, as AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile all do as well.
AT&T doubled its upgrade fee to $36 in February after Sprint did the same last year. T-Mobile charges an $18 fee, but that’s not likely to stay that low. Verizon was the final holdout, charging $35 to new customers, but no upgrade cut. Read more...
Verizon, VMware team on dual-persona phone software
Verizon Wireless will announce dual-persona software with partner EMC VMware later this week, closely following AT&T in unveiling a way to separate mobile handsets into business and personal segments.
Verizon's dual-persona system will be available for more than one major mobile operating system and will complement the carrier's Private Applications Store for Business, announced on Monday.
Offering both will give enterprises more options for securing the applications and data that their employees use, said Janet Schijns, vice president of Verizon's Business Solutions Group.
Dual-persona systems have been gaining traction slowly but appear ready to make a leap forward this week as the U.S. mobile industry gathers for the CTIA Enterprise & Applications trade show in San Diego. VMware tapped into its enterprise virtualization expertise to announce a mobile hypervisor late last year. On Monday, AT&T announced a service called Toggle, based on technology from Enterproid, which will set up dual personas on mobile devices running Version 2.2 and later of the Google Android OS. It is scheduled to be available by the end of this year. Read more...
Verizon readying new VCast Apps store
Verizon Wireless will introduce a new version of its VCast Apps store to developers at its Verizon Developer Conference in September, improving the experience for both app creators and consumers, an executive said Wednesday.
VCast Apps is Verizon's own app storefront on handsets. The carrier populates the store with apps that have been tested for security, usability and power and bandwidth efficiency. It works with developers to help them meet those standards and create better apps, said Kyle Malady, Verizon's vice president of network and technology. He described the new app-store effort in an interview at the opening of Verizon's Application Innovation Center (AIC) in San Francisco, where the carrier plans to work with developers and connect them with potential hardware and software partners. Read more...
Verizon adds 19 more cities to its LTE network
Verizon Wireless announced 19 more cities that will get its faster LTE wireless network service starting Thursday, bringing the total to 74 metropolitan areas.
San Francisco and Detroit, already on Verizon LTE since last December, will also see the existing LTE network in those cities expanded, Verizon said in a statement.
The new 19 LTE cities include several state capitals such as Sacramento, Calif., Hartford, Conn., Boise, Idaho, Harrisburg, Pa., Indianapolis, Ind., Salt Lake City (with Ogden), Utah; and Madison (with Milwaukee), Wis. The full list of cities is on Verizon's website. Read more...
Could Over-the-Air iOS Updates Brick Apple’s iPhone?
Apple and Verizon Wireless may be planning over-the-air downloads for iOS 5. News reports are heralding an end to the days when users have to plug an iPhone into a computer and connect to iTunes to get the latest version of the mobile operating system.
Over-the-air downloads are nothing new. Google's Android-powered phones do it. Microsoft Windows phones do it. Hewlett-Packard's Palm phones do it. So why shouldn't Apple?
Michael Disabato, managing vice president of network and telecom at Gartner, can think of several reasons why over-the-air downloads of iOS 5 would be a bad idea. Read more...
Verizon Partners With BoxTone on Mobile Management
Verizon Wireless on Monday said it is now offering enterprises BoxTone's mobile device management software, allowing some customers to pay for the software on their Verizon Wireless bills.
BoxTone offers mobile device management software as well as an automated service desk product and compliance tools.
BoxTone's software lets IT administrators remotely monitor the health of phones in the enterprise. They can look up the real-time status of a phone, see what applications are running on it, monitor the connection between the phone and the enterprise, check on the wireless connection and see other performance metrics, said Brian Reed, chief marketing officer for BoxTone. Read more...