17May

Verizon: If You Want To Keep Your Unlimited Data, Pay Full Price For Your Next Smartphone

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Verizon CFO Fran Shammo ruffled a few feathers yesterday when he mentioned at an investor conference that every one of their customers would be on one of the carrier’s new data share plans.

In an effort to clarify his meaning, Verizon sent a statement to a handful of news outlets today that shines a bit more light on how they plan to make this situation work.

First thing’s first — Verizon still intends to make those pesky (for them, anyway) unlimited data plans a thing of the past, they’ll just be doing it more gradually than originally anticipated.

That said, subscribers currently clinging to their unlimited data plans can actually keep them in certain cases. If you’re a customer who just upgraded from a 3G to a 4G device with that older data plan intact, congratulations — you’ll be able to hang on to it until the next time you waltz into a Verizon store to upgrade your smartphone.

Furthermore, customers who pay the full outright price for their handsets will be able to keep their unlimited plans as well, though that’s hardly anything new for them — by buying the device outright, you’re able to dodge another multi-year contract extension. As far as Verizon seems to be concerned, you’re fine unless you take them up on the offer of a discounted device (and the contract that goes with it):

“When we introduce our new shared data plans, Unlimited Data will no longer be available to customers when purchasing handsets at discounted pricing.”

That little “discounted pricing” proviso is an interesting one — does that mean customers would be able to hold onto those unlimited plans if they opted to pay full price for devices from now on? It certainly seems that way, though I can’t imagine too many people would be eager to take them up on that deal considering how damned expensive smartphones are without that nifty little subsidy to help out. Still, the option seems to be there for anyone who doesn’t mind spending gobs of money to prove a point.



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16May

Verizon unlimited plans WILL NOT carry over to 4G

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Well… this is what I was afraid of. Earlier today I wrote an article expressing concern that, if a 4G iPhone came out, all of us grandfathered into an unlimited data plan would be forced into new, capped data plans. Unfortunately, it seems that I was correct. During a speech at the J.P. Morgan Technology, Media and Telecom conference today,…

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16May

Verizon To Axe Unlimited Data Once Their New Data Share Plans Go Live

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Verizon Wireless has been working on bringing shared data plans to market for months now, but it turns out not everyone may enjoy making that transition.

Verizon CFO Fran Shammo said at an investor conference earlier today that users on those wonderful old grandfathered unlimited data plans will soon have to give them up if they want to move into a 4G device.

“A lot of our 3G base is unlimited,” Shammo remarked. “As they start to migrate onto 4G, they will have to come off of unlimited and go onto the data share plan. That’s beneficial for us for many reasons.”

Though the move doesn’t come as a surprise — they’ve been running promotions to incentivize migration to their LTE network for a while now — but hearing their intentions actually spelled out like that probably won’t please many long-standing Verizon customers. The carrier is aiming to roll out their shared data plans “mid-summer,” though I expect more new details to trickle out soon.

But let’s back up a bit here — how will these things actually work? Though most of the details are still hush-hush, customers will be able to pay a set rate for tiered data plan that can be shared by all the devices on the account. Even though these new data plans are set to make their debut sooner rather than later, there’s still no information available on what they’ll actually cost. Verizon isn’t exactly known for being the most price-conscious wireless carrier (don’t get me started on the rise of $299 smartphones), but we’ll have to wait and see what they’ve come up with.

The concept of shared data plans would is wonderful for families and other multi-line accounts, but it doesn’t do any favors for the individual customers who don’t need more than one device. The status of existing customers who have had their unlimited data plans grandfathered over to their new 4G devices is also unclear — Shammo makes it sound like only customers who upgrade after the change takes place will have to pick a new data plan (for better or worse), and with any luck they’ll leave the lucky souls who have already locked their old data plans alone for now.



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14May

Droid RAZR Maxx Cut To $199 At Verizon Wireless, Source Says RAZR Price Cut To Follow

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Watch out for falling prices! Verizon Wireless just cut the price of the RAZR Maxx to an attractive $199. That puts it on par with the iPhone 4S and Galaxy Nexus, making the 32GB iPhone 4S and BlackBerry Bold 9930 as Verizon’s only phones north of $199. Interestingly enough, even though the standard-strength RAZR was on sale for $99 the last two weeks, Verizon Wireless actually raised the price back to its MSRP of $199. However, that might be changing rather quickly according to our sources.

As it sits with both phones at $199, there isn’t a single valid reason to opt for the original RAZR over the RAZR Maxx. Sure, the original is slightly thinner, we’re talking just 2mm here, but the RAZR Maxx’s bigger battery more than compensates for the trivial difference in thickness. Despite some software bugs we found the RAZR Maxx to be a competent LTE handset.

Verizon is coming off a very successful promotional sale with the RAZR. The retail cut the price in half for the two weeks leading up to Mother’s Day. Our source indicated that in at least his store, the RAZR outsold the iPhone with the lower price. Verizon Wireless even quietly cleared out the remaining 32GB RAZR models for just $99 during this sale. We’re hearing Verizon is preparing to drop the price permanently on the RAZR, which shouldn’t come as a big surprise. The phone is already available through Motorola for $99 on-contract.

Right now there are a conflicting reports about the status of Android. Some say Android is winning and some say the iPhone is dominating. Either way, aggressive pricing such as this could turn the tide towards the former.



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07May

Color Partners With Verizon To Bring Livestreaming Audio and Video to iPhone, Android

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Pre-Broadcast_Web

After a disastrous launch and a not-so stellar pivot, Color may finally have found its stride and a rather large core user base. Today, Color and Verizon Wireless have entered a three year deal to bring live streaming video and audio to its fleet of 4G LTE smartphones, including all compatible Android devices and even the iPhone.

Audio streaming will be exclusive to Verizon’s 4G LTE devices. Video frame rate has also been doubled for higher quality streams. The majority of all upcoming 4G LTE Android smartphones will ship with Color pre-loaded. Verizon iPhone users have the choice to download or update the Color app straight from the App Store beginning today.

What’s really interesting about this partnership is that the Color app will ostensibly be living in the cloud for Verizon users. If Color were to extend the 30-second livestream to 35 seconds, for example, users won’t be forced to update the app to unlock that new feature.

Color is also in talks with ShareWith911.com to integrate certain Color APIs to aid first responders, I’m told.

But this is only the beginning for Color’s “visual tweets,” says Bill Nguyen, CEO and co-founder of Color. “In the future, video will be livestreamed in HD, you won’t have to record videos anymore and our partnership with Verizon will help us get there even faster.”

We’ll have more on what Nguyen hopes to accomplish with Color for the future in an upcoming story.

Color [iTunes]

Color [Google Play]



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