Verizon Wireless

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Verizon Wireless
Type	Private (Joint Venture)
Founded	Merger of Bell Atlantic Mobile/Vodafone US wireless assets on April 4, 2000
Headquarters	Basking Ridge, New Jersey, USA
Key people	Lowell McAdam (Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer)
Industry	Wireless Services
Products	CDMA2000 1x and EV-DO (wireless voice and data services), SMS (text messaging), MMS (picture messaging), Video on Demand (V CAST), Mobile TV (V CAST Mobile TV), location-based services, BREW (Get It Now), Push to Talk, AMPS, Global Phone Rental/Sales (via Vodafone) (GSM/CDMA Hybrid Phones), Satellite Phone Rental/Sales (via Vodafone)
Revenue	$38 Billion
Employees	65,000
Parent	Verizon Communications (55%) Vodafone Group (45%)
Slogan	It's the Network / We never stop working for you (website)
Website	verizonwireless.com

Verizon Wireless owns and operates the second-largest wireless telecommunications network in the United States and the largest wireless telecommunications in Puerto Rico along with Puerto Rico Telephone (PRT) which was recently acquired by América Móvil and Telmex, based on total wireless customers. As of January 2007, the company served a total of 59.1 million customers and has the largest service by area. Headquartered in Basking Ridge, New Jersey, the company is a joint venture of Verizon Communications and Vodafone Group, with 55 and 45 percent ownership respectively.

Contents 1 History 2 Advertising 3 Awards 4 Content delivery systems 4.1 Get It Now 4.1.1 Overview 4.1.2 Video content 4.1.3 Pricing and availability 4.2 V CAST 5 Verizon Wireless with OnStar 6 Controversy 7 Verizon Wireless competitors 8 Verizon Wireless' MVNOs 9 Notes 10 See also 11 External links

[edit] History

Verizon Wireless traces its roots to Bell Atlantic Mobile, NYNEX Mobile Communications, AirTouch Communications, PrimeCo Communications, and GTE Mobilnet. Bell Atlantic Mobile and NYNEX Mobile Communications merged in 1995 to create Bell Atlantic-NYNEX Mobile, and in 1997 their namesake Baby Bell parents followed suit to form the new Bell Atlantic and their wireless subsidiary was renamed Bell Atlantic Mobile. Bell Atlantic Mobile and NYNEX Mobile Communications was created from Advanced Mobile Phone Service, Inc., which was a subsidiary of AT&T created in 1978 to provide cellular service nationwide. AMPS, Inc. was divided among the RBOCs as part of the Bell System Divestiture.

Meanwhile, in June 1999, AirTouch Communications of San Francisco, California merged with UK-based Vodafone Group Plc, forming Vodafone AirTouch Plc. In September 1999, Vodafone AirTouch announced a $90-billion joint venture with Bell Atlantic Corp. to be called Verizon Wireless, and which would be comprised of the two companies' U.S. wireless assets: Bell Atlantic Mobile and AirTouch Paging. This wireless joint venture received regulatory approval in six months, and began operations as Verizon Wireless on April 4, 2000. On June 30, 2000, the addition of GTE Wireless' assets, in connection with the merger of Bell Atlantic and GTE to form Verizon Communications, made Verizon Wireless the nation's largest wireless communications provider (until Cingular's acquisition of AT&T Wireless in 2004). For the joint venture, Verizon Communications owns 55% and UK-based Vodafone Group (formerly Vodafone AirTouch) owns 45%¹.

The name "Verizon," a portmanteau, is derived by combining the word "veritas," a Latin term that means "truth," and the word "horizon." Together, they are supposed to conjure images of reliability, certainty, leadership, and limitless possibilities. [1]

Verizon is one of six U.S. carriers to use CDMA technology, the others being Sprint Nextel's Sprint PCS division, ALLTEL, U.S. Cellular, Cricket, Midwest Wireless and Metro PCS. Please see List of United States mobile phone companies for more information. Aside from the 3 generations of CDMA (IS-95, 1x, and EV-DO), Verizon Wireless also supports a legacy AMPS network.

Verizon Wireless claims it invests more than $6 billion annually to "maintain and expand" its nationwide CDMA network and support its analog network. Verizon Wireless offers voice services as well as 3G data services such as wireless broadband based on EV-DO, text and picture messaging, over-the-air downloadable applications and content from its "Get It Now" service, Video on Demand in the form of V CAST (which allows customers to download and view video content), location-based services, and Push-to-Talk.

[edit] Advertising

Verizon Wireless advertised, in the year 2000, the fact that they were, for a time, the largest cellular network in the country by showing people using cell phones and then gesturing with two fingers, much like the World War II-era "V for Victory" sign, to show that the person was on the Verizon ("V" or "iN") network. The slogan for Verizon Wireless at that time was "Join in." (Reminiscent of the slogan "Join in" was used in their marketing scheme up to this day. i.e., "iN-calling," "iN-messaging," and even the toll-free number "1-800-2-JOIN-IN.")

Later, Verizon adopted the slogan "We never stop working for you," with commercials depicting a Verizon employee roaming about in strange places continuously asking, "Can you hear me now? Good." (The "employee" is played by stage actor Paul Marcarelli [2]) The "test man" represents Verizon test technicians.

In 2005, Verizon Wireless added an "army" of network engineers into their commercials in conjunction with the "test man." The "test man" no longer says "Can you hear me now? Good." Instead, they have adopted a new slogan "It's the Network." to emphasize their network quality. (Verizon Wireless still uses the slogan "We never stop working for you." from time to time--especially on their website: http://www.verizonwireless.com)

[edit] Awards

• Highest In Business Wireless Satisfaction - J.D. Power and Associates, May 17, 2006
• Highest Customer Service Quality Rating - RCR Wireless News, January 21, 2004
• Best Wireless Product - Wireless Systems Design, February 11, 2004
• Carrier of the Year - Wireless Week, March 22, 2004
• Carrier of the Year - Wireless Week, April 1, 2006
• Best Overall Carrier - Laptop Magazine, May 2004
• Best Place to Work in IT - ComputerWorld, June 14, 2004
• Best Place to Work in IT - Computerworld, June 19, 2006
• 100 Best Companies for Working Mothers - Working Mother, October 2004
• Reader's Choice - PC Magazine, November 29, 2004
• Corporation of the Year - The U.S. Pan Asian American Chamber of Commerce
• Gold Well Workplace - The Wellness Councils of America, September 2005
• Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. April 1, 2006
• Tops For Diversity DiversityBusiness.com, March 30, 2006
• Training Top 100, Again Training, March 2006

[edit] Content delivery systems

[edit] Get It Now

[edit] Overview

Get It Now is Verizon Wireless' implementation of Qualcomm's BREW technology, allowing a user to download and use applications on a Verizon Wireless Get It Now-enabled phone. It is a proprietary interface to download ring tones, music, games, applications, and use instant messaging on a phone. Verizon has implemented a GPS navigation application available through GetItNow which works for the most part like a standalone GPS unit. Users can also locate businesses within their vicinity, searching by category or business name. Users usually are unable to load content on the Verizon Wireless phones outside of Get It Now system, this is done for financial reasons. Verizon Wireless has exclusivity agreements with its Get It Now content providers (See Walled garden (media)). Sometimes cell phone enthusiasts do unauthorized modifications to their phones or use unauthorized software to make the phone accept non- Get It Now -originated content.

[edit] Video content

• Music & Tones
  • V CAST Music
  • V CAST Performances
  • Ringback Tones
  • Ringtones
• Video
  • V CAST Video
• Games
  • V CAST Games
• Messaging
  • TXT
  • PIX & FLIX
  • Mobile IM
  • Email
• Wallpapers
• News & Info Applications
  • Alerts
  • Web
  • Going

[edit] Pricing and availability

Most games available on Get It Now are available in two purchase options: "subscribe," which charges a monthly amount to an account, and "unlimited" which is slightly more expensive and has one-time charge. Subscription fees range from $2.99 to $4.99 per month. Purchase fees range from $4.99 to $11.99 Most applications, such as Zagat restaurant lookup, do not allow unlimited-use purchases. Any application or game that requires a data connection will use Verizon minutes. Often, more advanced games must be purchased and downloaded.

Even though most of the applications available through Get It Now are BREW-based, the available selection of games and applications is different depending on what Verizon phone one is using.

[edit] V CAST

Main article: V CAST

V CAST is Verizon's current content delivery network. V CAST is powered by Verizon Wireless' EV-DO network. The typical download speed is between 400 and 700 kilobits per second with burst speeds of up to 2 megabits per second. V CAST provides streaming video clips. Some videos may be saved to the phone or a removable memory card, though they cannot be read by other phones or computers. V CAST is heavily protected by digital rights management software based on Windows Media Video 9 and developed by PacketVideo [3]. There is buffering before the video stream is played and possibly during video playback, depending on the quality of the connection. V CAST is implemented as a permanently installed BREW application on a V CAST compatible phone. The V CAST application will not allow videos to play or even to navigate menus if there is no EV-DO coverage available. Contrast this to Sprint's MobiTV system which operates over 1xRTT, the predecessor to EV-DO. V CAST will only fall back to the slower 1x when a V CAST user leaves an EV-DO area in the middle of a video clip.

V CAST is one of the few mobile phone-based systems on which more advanced games including 3-D graphics can be played. The graphic quality of these games is similar to the original Sony PlayStation or the Sega Saturn. Most, but not all, V CAST games require airtime for use, but most of the V CAST plans give you unlimited airtime for all videos and games.

[edit] Verizon Wireless with OnStar

Verizon Wireless currently offers the "America's Choice Plan with OnStar," which is a bundle plan between Verizon Wireless service and OnStar service. [4] With this plan, the Verizon Wireless phone is the "primary line" and the OnStar device is the "secondary line." This plan is very similar to the "Family SharePlan," with rates starting at $69.99 USD for 700 minutes. [5]

[edit] Controversy

• In mid-2006, the consumer research firm Telephia published a report that suggests Cingular Wireless drops the fewest calls across the country. Verizon Wireless advertises heavily the quality of their network above competitors.

Telephia independently measures the top four wireless carriers for a number of consumer value points. In relation to call quality, Telephia, in a letter to the four major carriers regarding this research, will not confirm or deny that Cingular drops the fewest calls. Also, Telephia has requested that Cingular update its advertising to indicate that Telephia provided the information it uses to make this claim, not that it actually supports or confirms the 'fewest dropped calls' claim. See Boston Globe Article Consumer Beat article by Bruce Mohl on May 14, 2006, page 2 Tepid Support [6]

• Verizon "cripples" the file and media transferring features of many of their cellphone offerings in order to force customers to purchase content through its "Get It Now" service. One example is the LG VX8500, a phone that features full MP3 player support. (It has a miniSD card to store MP3s, and play and pause/stop buttons on the front of the phone.) Verizon initially modified the phone's firmware to prevent MP3s from being used altogether. While newer phones were sold with the MP3 player re-enabled, and customers were usually informed of this feature, they still cannot be used as ringtones. The newest version of this phone has once again disabled this capability. Verizon's policy is in contrast to its major competitors (both GSM and CDMA): Cingular, T-Mobile, Sprint Nextel, and Alltel; which allow their customers to use all the features that are available in the manufacturer's reference firmware design. See the next bullet point for more information.

• Verizon advertised the Motorola V710 as having full Bluetooth capability, when in reality it had no OBEX or OPP functions built in. After many complaints, a class action suit was filed for false advertising, not only for advertising missing capabilities, but also for telling customers who complained to Verizon that an update was coming out "in November." The lawsuit was initiated in January of 2005 and settlement decision became final on March 20, 2006, with Verizon offering to qualified members of the class action suit (purchased a V710 BEFORE February 2, 2005) a $25 credit to all of its V710 customers, or the option to trade in the V710 for $200 or original purchase price and allow them to keep their phone number and service, or $200 or original purchase price and allow them to break their contract and discontinue service with Verizon (all after numerous paperwork loops). The settlement to the lawsuit did not directly address the V710's restrictions. The same hardware crippling exists with Motorola's successor to the V710, the E815, but unlike the V710, the E815 was marked clearly that OBEX and OPP was disabled. Additionally, through a seem edit, OBEX could be enabled on the 815, but not on the 710 (the Verizon e815 lacks the OPP profile altogether). Other carriers' versions of the V710, while still possessing some restrictions to the Bluetooth functionality, are much less restrictive overall, allowing full use of the customer's own MIDI and MP3 files for ringtones, etc.

• Verizon makes heavy use of Qualcomm's BREW technology, and uses it over Java in case of phones where both are an option. By using BREW (which is branded Get It Now), Verizon locks users into its own applications, making it impossible to install anything Verizon doesn't offer. Programs such as the standard mail reader included in some phones were removed, forcing people to buy expensive mail readers from Get It Now. It is not uncommon for CDMA carriers to implement BREW. Most of the US CDMA carriers currently use BREW. Sprint Nextel is the main exception. They have opted for the Java interface.

• Verizon Wireless has removed features in firmware updates for the Motorola V710 and several other newer phones for ringtone transfers, making it more difficult - but not impossible - to transfer MP3s from the phone's microSD card. This update also disabled editing of the homepage field in WebSessions making it more difficult to use alternate WAP gateways.

One result of this crippling has been a prominent network of "unofficial" web sites, documenting how to enable, access, or use hidden or crippled features. This often includes divulging service codes for new phone models, or homebrew software that can access otherwise hidden parts of the phone's memory system.

• Verizon Wireless has recently implemented a standard user interface across all handsets. Somewhat reminiscent of LG's interface, this standard reduces support training costs. However, it has also anecdotally alienated many brand-loyal customers who find it not aesthetically pleasing, only minimally customizable, slower than the previous interface, and a hindrance to the functioning of several previously available phone features. For example, Verizon Wireless marketed the RAZR V3c without mentioning an absence of the Motorola menu system, thereby misleading customers into purchasing the device despite the inclusion of an unconventional interface.

Various disabilities Verizon’s customers must contend with, include an awkward two-handed speakerphone function, as well as three pre-installed ring tones (two of which are extremely irritating), and text message chimes. It is also easy to accidentally turn the speakerphone on while making a call. They must also deal with the lack of the simultaneous vibrate/ring call alert, which will cause the user to miss more calls especially in noisy areas.

• Verizon Wireless has come under fire by "power users" of its EV-DO wireless data network (called BroadbandAccess), for using language in its terms of service which heavily restricts what activities an EV-DO user can conduct even though the service is advertised as offering "Unlimited" data usage. The language in Verizon Wireless' usage agreement states "Unlimited NationalAccess/BroadbandAccess services cannot be used (1) for uploading, downloading or streaming of movies, music or games, (2) with server devices or with host computer applications, including, but not limited to, Web camera posts or broadcasts, automatic data feeds, Voice over IP (VoIP), automated machine-to-machine connections, or peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing, or (3) as a substitute or backup for private lines or dedicated data connections... We reserve right to limit throughput or amount of data transferred, deny or terminate service, without notice, to anyone we believe is using NationalAccess or BroadbandAccess in any manner prohibited above or whose usage adversely impacts our network or service levels." [7] See the bottom of the cited page for complete TOS language.

• Not only does Verizon limit the type of "unlimited" use, it imposes a quota on "unlimited" use, and terminates customers who exceed it. According to the Washington Post.[8], Broadband Reports[9], tech columnist Robert X. Cringely, many wireless industry "insider" news sites[10],[11], and countless blogs[12]; Verizon advertises "unlimited" broadband service reserves the right to terminate anyone using more than 5G/month (166M/day). This is a quota of about 15 minutes of continuous data transmission time per day. A PBS investigator monitored his bandwidth during normal use and discovered it to be 184M/day[13].

• Verizon has advertised picture/video (MMS) messaging as an "IN" Service that will not cost you the normal $0.25 fee per message, or will not deduct from a fixed number of messages plan as long as both parties use Verizon. They however do not mention that there is a data transfer charge at $.015/KB transferred. This hidden charge is imposed on all "data" phones regardless of whether your plan states that you get free "Pix/Flix." Because of this, even a small image transfer can end up costing several dollars.[14]

Verizon has stated that this charge is due to a difference in the way "data phones" transmit pictures and video (by connecting to the data network). This was changed as of December 20, 2006.

[edit] Verizon Wireless competitors

Wireless (in order of customer totals)

• Cingular Wireless
• Sprint Nextel
• T-Mobile
• Alltel
• U.S. Cellular
• SunCom

[edit] Verizon Wireless' MVNOs

• Amp'd Mobile
• TracFone
• Lucky Aces

[edit] Notes

Early in 2006, Verizon announced their intent to buy out the remaining 45% of stock of Verizon Wireless from The Vodafone Group. On August 1, 2006, Vodafone affirmed that it in fact has no intention of giving up its stake in Verizon Wireless. [15]

At the end of 2006, Verizon Wireless bought out West Virginia Wireless, a local GSM cell phone company.

[edit] See also

• Verizon Communications (primary Verizon Wireless' parent company)
• Vodafone (secondary Verizon Wireless' parent company)
• Venturi Transport Protocol

[edit] External links

• Official Verizon Wireless Web site
• OnStar with Verizon Wireless service

This box: view • talk • edit American mobile phone companies
Major network operators
Alltel  · AT&T Mobility (Cingular)  · Sprint Nextel  · T-Mobile  · Verizon Wireless
Minor and regional network operators
Cellular One  · Cellular South  · Centennial Wireless  · Cincinnati Bell Wireless  · Cricket Communications  · Edge Wireless  · MetroPCS  · nTelos  · Revol  · SouthernLINC Wireless  · SunCom  · U.S. Cellular  · Unicel
Mobile virtual network operator
7-Eleven Speak Out Wireless  · Amp'd Mobile  · BeyondMobile  · Boost Mobile  · Disney Mobile  · Hawaiian Telcom  · Helio  · Jitterbug Wireless  · Jump Mobile  · Kajeet  · Net10 Wireless  · Qwest Wireless  · TracFone  · Virgin Mobile  · XE Mobile