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AT&T Inc., the No. 2 U.S. mobile service, plans to sell three smartphones from Motorola Inc. based on Google Inc.’s Android software, potentially helping the phone maker depend less on Verizon Wireless, its most important U.S. customer.
The new devices, announced Tuesday, are aimed at a more cost-conscious audience than Motorola’s flagship Droid X device, which Verizon Wireless sells for $200. Get the full story »
Comments from Verizon Communications Inc. CEO Ivan Seidenberg leave little room for the possibility of a Verizon version of the iPhone in the near future.
Speaking to an investor conference Thursday, Seidenberg said nothing about an iPhone for the company’s current network, but said he hopes Apple Inc. will come around and allow Verizon to sell the phone for a new network it’s building. The “4G” network hasn’t yet opened for service and won’t be complete next year. Get the full story »
Lowell C. McAdam. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)
Verizon Communications said on Monday it named Lowell McAdam its president and chief operating officer, setting the veteran executive up as the successor to Chief Executive Ivan Seidenberg.
McAdam, currently chief executive of Verizon Wireless, a venture of Verizon and Vodafone Group Plc, will take up his new role October 1. Get the full story »
Verizon Wireless said Thursday it will offer no-contract data plans for many of its 3G multimedia phones and smartphones, including those from its premier Droid line of devices.
The prepaid data package costs $30 a month for unlimited access. For $10 a month, customers can get a data plan for their multimedia phones, or those that aren’t designed for intense Web browsing as smartphones are. The $10 data plan is capped at 25 megabytes a month.
The prepaid segment has grown rapidly in the last few years, fueled both by recessionary pressures on consumers and newer generations of phone users that dislike being tethered to a two-year contract. Major carriers such as Verizon have traditionally focused on post-paid subscribers, who tend to be a more reliable and lucrative source of revenue. But with increased competition from no-contract carriers such as Cricket Wireless, Boost Mobile and Virgin Mobile, which have smartphones in their line-ups in addition to no-frills handsets, other companies have started to sweeten their prepaid offerings as well. Get the full story »
As U.S. companies shed millions of workers during the recession, the CEOs who laid off the most people brought home pay that was significantly higher than that of their peers, according to a Washington, D.C. think tank study.
The CEOs of the 50 U.S. companies that laid off the most workers between November 2008 and April 2010 were paid $12 million on average in 2009, or 42 percent more than the average across the Standard & Poor’s 500, the Institute for Policy Studies study said. Get the full story »
A customer looks at items for an HTC EVO smart phone at a Sprint store in Los Angeles, June 16, 2010. (Francine Orr/Los Angeles Times/MCT)
A hot new smart phone can be Incredible, Vibrant, Epic or just “eh,“ but no matter how it stacks up, it’s a safe bet that it will start selling at $199. And what’s so special about $199?
“The obvious answer is that $199 is a magic price point for smart phone volume,“ said George Appling, partner at consulting firm Booz & Co. “The not-so-obvious reason is that carriers are not charging customers what they pay.“ Get the full story »
Time Warner Cable has your number and if you don’t want them to give it out, it’s going to cost you more. It’s not the only telecom that charges monthly to keep your phone number unlisted. But it is the only one that just doubled the fee.
The seemingly recession-proof smart phone is suffering from a side effect of the rough economy: Manufacturers simply can’t build enough of the gadgets because chip-makers that rolled back production last year are now scrambling to play catch-up.
The chip shortage means Apple Inc.’s rivals are having trouble making enough phones to compete with the iPhone, a problem expected to persist through the holidays. It’s also affecting wireless carriers, some of which are seeing delays in improving their networks, and it could even raise computer prices.
Lobbyists for phone, cable and Internet companies including Yahoo Inc. and Microsoft Corp. met Wednesday to again try to agree on how to manage Internet traffic, three sources familiar with the meeting said.
The sources said the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and Google Inc were not involved in the latest industry effort to agree on “net neutrality”, the concept that high-speed Internet providers should not block or slow selected information or make websites pay for faster ways to reach users. Get the full story »
Verizon Communications Inc. Chief Financial Officer John Killian compared the wireless arm’s lead in profitability to Tiger Wood’s dominance on the golf course.
“We will maintain the Tiger Woods position on top of the world in terms of profitability,” Killian told analysts during an investor conference on Wednesday.
In reference to Woods’ recent struggles, Killian said that people keep wanting to chip away at the star athlete, much like critics are attempting to chip away at Verizon Wireless’s lead in profitability. Instead, the business is widening its lead, he said. Get the full story »
Motorola unveiled Tuesday its follow-up to the Droid smartphone it released last year, introducing a new handset with a redesigned keyboard and other improvements.
The Droid 2 will be available for online pre-sales on Wednesday and in-store sales at Verizon Wireless on Thursday. It will cost $199.99 after a mail-in rebate and requires a two-year contract and a smartphone data plan.
The original Droid was released in November at Verizon Wireless to generally positive reviews, although some users had gripes with the keyboard. Motorola said the new Droid 2 has a new keyboard “with raised keys for more responsive typing,” and also features increased processing power and the ability to be a mobile hotspot for up to five WiFi-enabled devices. The hotspot feature costs an extra $20 per month. Get the full story »
Google Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. on Monday jointly agreed that wireline broadband providers should not be able to discriminate against lawful Internet content providers and that the regulators should have authority to stop offenders.
But the proposal, which takes the form of a suggested legislative framework for consideration by lawmakers, also left room for broadband providers to offer new “differentiated online services,” in addition to the Internet access and video services available today. Get the full story »
Federal regulators are abandoning efforts to negotiate a compromise on so-called “network neutrality” rules intended to ensure that phone and cable companies cannot discriminate against Internet traffic traveling over broadband networks.
The announcement by the Federal Communications Commission ends weeks of FCC-brokered talks to reach an agreement on the thorny issue among a handful of big phone, cable TV and Internet companies. And it comes as two big companies that have been taking part in those talks — Verizon Communications Inc. and Google Inc. — try to hammer out their own proposal on how broadband providers should treat Internet traffic.
According to people briefed on the negotiations, Verizon and Google hope their proposal could help shape legislation in Congress.
Google Inc. on Thursday strongly denied a report that said the search giant was close to an agreement with Verizon Communications Inc. that would allow the carrier to speed the delivery of online content to Internet users if content creators paid for the privilege.
The purported agreement, reported by the New York Times, would severely undercut the Internet tenet known as net neutrality, in which no form of content is favored over another. The Times suggested an agreement between Google and Verizon could lead to a new tiered system in which consumers pay more for premium levels of service. Get the full story »
