iPhone comes to America’s most Reliable wireless network, which would work with 3G CDMA (non-LTE) version of the iPhone 4.

Verizon iPhone would be available on Apple stores, Verizon outlets on Feb 10th starting at $199.99, and pre-orders start from Feb 3rd. Talks started way back in 2008, and the phone has been in testing for a year.

What’s different in Verizon iPhone:

• iPhone CDMA antenna changes, to avoid antenna gate
• White iPhone
• Mobile Wifi Hostspot Tethering:  upto 5 devices.
• New Qualcomm CDMA chip
• New, cheaper Data plan with upto 5GB usage.
• iOS 4.2.5 preinstalled
• No more speed hogging, no more signal troubles. Yay!

Official Verizon

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AT&T has struggled to overcome complaints about network quality ever since it started exclusively selling the iPhone in the U.S. in 2007. That contributed to a decision last summer to offer new iPhone and other smartphone customers only pricing plans that cap how much data they send and receive.

The confirmation comes from Verizon, as they have invited reporters to a press event where it is expected the wireless carrier will announce it will carry the iPhone. It wasn’t clear how long Verizon would offer unlimited-data plans. Its executives have said repeatedly that the industry needs to move to some form of tiered pricing-charging different prices for different amounts of data use-as mobile Internet service use rises, but for the moment the carrier is sticking to its existing plans.

Recently, a company claimed leaked iPhone 5 in a video footage, and was 100% genuine as apple took down the video.

A report by the Wall Street Journal specifically notes that Verizon will offer its existing unlimited data plan to iPhone users, something AT&T no longer offers to new subscribers. “It wasn’t clear how long Verizon would offer unlimited plans,” the report said. “Its executives have said repeatedly that the industry needs to move to some form of tiered pricing as data use rises, but for the moment the carrier is sticking with its current data plans.”
Verizon would set a separate 5GB data limit on its tethering option and on data plans for USB modems and similar PC-oriented WWAN services.

There are some regional differences in service plans, as well as family and business plans, but the general terms of each carrier’s current plans are outlined below, with differences highlighted in red.

AT&T offers rollover minutes, while Verizon offers users on its cheapest calling plan the ability to list five contacts they can make unlimited calls with. Both company’s unlimited calling plans are virtually identical.
In data plans, AT&T has given up its unlimited data plan for iPhone users and replaced it with 200MB and 2GB (2000MB) options. Tethering the iPhone to use its mobile 3G with a laptop costs an additional $20 per month but does not offer any additional data service.

AT&T’s service also enables users to roam globally on other GSM/UMTS carriers, although this is very expensive. AT&T’s UMTS service also supports simultaneous voice and data use, unlike Verizon, where users must terminate their call before they can again receive push messages or browse the web.

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While having a Chrome OS Tablet was bit obvious, it was not sure that what would Google come out with first: Chrome OS Tablet or Android Tablet.

As per the latest leak, DownloadSquad reports that Google is building a Chrome OS tablet. The hardware is being built by HTC, leading to another OEM partnership with HTC after Nexus One.

Since  Chrome OS is a thin-client OS, a Browser, more precisely, it would heavily rely on internet usage being connected all the time. And that’s why they plan to offer it in conjunction with Verizon — Now we know what that Net neutrality move was all about.

Launch Date: Google plans to unveil this gadget on Black Friday – Novemebr 26th to be precise. No doubt, this would be the best day to  launch  a shiny new tablet with nation’s most reliable wireless network – Verizon.

Pricing: Its hard to say how much exactly, but, Google Chrome OS tablet will be heavily subsidized, with a Verizon data contract. It can be as low as $100.

The Hardware: As per the rumors, it will be powered by NVidia’s Tegra 2 platform that would power smooth HD videos and blazing graphics rendering for both gmaes & heavy, Rich web content. The display would essentially be a 720p (1280×720) multitouch display feeding on  2GB of RAM, & will posses large SD card starting all the way from 32GB SSD.

On the connectivity front, It would feature WiFi 802.11n, Bluetooth 2.1, 3G EVDO/HSDPA 7.1 Mbps connectivity. There would be a good GPS, camera. The hardware would be good enough to amke everyone happy enough, just like they did with Nexus One.

But will it succeed? Most users would never leave native apps for the web apps? But who knows if google has something really awesome being cooked under the hood. Their acquisitions like BumptTop can bring 3D desktop environment to this tablet.

Even if it doesn’t I see good reasons to hack it to install Android 2.2 Froyo, Ubuntu Netbook Linux & may be Ubuntu 10.10 Multitouch in the future.

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The good things are inevitable, and Verizon Wireless will start selling the iPhone in January of next year, according to a report from Bloomberg. Unless you are living under the rock, you must be well aware of flawed antenna causing reception issues for AT&T / iPhone 4 users. Had it been Verizon, issue would have been trivial.

While there had been so many predictions in the past over iPhone and Verizon, this one comes with solid assets where Bloomberg is citing two people familiar with the matter.

iPhone 4 will not land as-is on the Verizon. As you might be aware, Verizon had been testing 4G LTE network over period of a year and as per the latest announcement, they plan to start servicing 4G services to nationwide mobile phones. In the beginning it would be more concentrated in the west, and then gradually expanding to the rest of the country.

Verizon will begin rolling out its LTE network in 25 markets starting on November 15th. While 25 markets might not sound like a lot, but apparently they’re enough to give 100 million subscribers access to the next-generation wireless network. LTE handsets will not be immediately available at launch, but Verizon is planning to release “a slew of new devices” on Black Friday which is on November 26th. LTE data plans will indeed be tiered, but Big Red won’t be pulling a Sprint and charing a $10 premium for access to its 4G network. Oh, and don’t be surprised if Verizon starts harping about how its “empowering the user” with open devices. [via]

Here is a video demonstrating how fast Motorola Droid X is:

More comparisons:

• iPhone 4 vs Android Evo 4G vs Incredible vs Nexus One
• iPhone iOS 4 vs Android 2.2 Froyo

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The iPhone will soon see a challenge, with the launch of the Motorola Droid, and Verizon is all set to market the phone with a series of anti-iPhone attack ads titled Droid does!

The first ad rolled out recently, directly picking on the iPhone‘s most commonly-cited shortcomings: non-replaceable battery, lack of flash in camera, lack of a physical keyboard etc. The counter on the DroidDoes site appears to count down to October 30th, near the holiday season.

Update: Motorola Droid Vs. iPhone 3GS Features Comparison

Specifications: The Motorola Droid features a 5-megapixel camera (with a flash), runs Google Android 2.0, supports multi-tasking, includes both a physical keyboard and touch screen. The marketing campaign hits Apple at its core.

Motorola Droid

Here are they points to notice about droid:

A great Google Android device on Verizon‘s top network could make a hit on the iPhone?  We will have to wait and see. Previously, similar claims with Blackberry Storm had no match for the iPhone. Though, what makes sense is the superior hardware capabilities of the Motorola Droid.

Hands-on Pics:

Overall Impressions

It has the best start-up sound in the whole world

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Android: HTC Desire, available before Black Friday. There are already some rumors on this. It could be called Hero too.

Others:
• RIM BlackBerry Curve 2, before Black Friday
• RIM BlackBerry Storm 2, before Black Friday
• Casio C731 Rock, mid-November
• Casio C741 Brigade, late October
• HTC Imagio, on October 20
• Motorola V860 Barrage, “soon” (it’s already available online in Verizon)
• Motorola Tao or Droid, available before Black Friday.
• Samsung Saga 2, early November
• Samsung Omnia 2, early November
• Pantech TXT8030 Razzle, early October

• LG VX8575 Chocolate Touch, first or second week of November

Here is the original source:
via Gizomodo

On Tuesday, Verizon held a conference at San Jose, California, Inviting developers for VDC – Verizon Developer Community. Developers showed high Interest in the idea.

Though there holds a big hurdle for the project — cross-platform consistency

At the conference, Verizon Wireless gave some details about its VCast App Store, scheduled for launch in the fourth quarter, 4Q. Inspired by the blockbuster success of the App Store for Apple’s iPhone, as well as the launches of application shops from Google, Research In Motion, Microsoft and other players, the nation’s biggest mobile operator plans to make it easier for developers to get their applications out to mobile users. Its goal is to take applications from submission to commercial availability in less than 14 days.

Verizon talked about development initiative. It will provide APIs that give developers access to Verizon resources including billing, location, messaging and presence. Those APIs will complement the existing SDKs for mobile platforms such as RIM’s BlackBerry and Microsoft’s Windows Mobile, Verizon said.

Uhmm.. Because we know Android, Palm Pre and possible iPhone are also arriving, we were expecting a realted announcement, but nothing came out, yet.

Good News for developers:

The business strategy is very similar to Apple App Store. Developers will get 70 percent of the revenue from paid applications.

Verizon isn’t charging developers to register on its site, and it intends not to charge for testing and certification of applications, said Roger Gurnani, senior vice president of product development, now that’s similar to Palm.

Developers are worried about how Verizon will handle the many platforms it will probably have to support. Jeffrey Baitis, a senior applications architect at RiffWare, wants to make sure the Verizon APIs for various phone types are consistent. Some features of Riffware applications have not been supported on all phones, he said. For example, one application had a camera function that only worked on 60 percent of handsets, he said. Riffware’s current products include a guitar-tuning application and a tool for blocking unwanted calls.

Baitis was hoping to hear how developers could tell Verizon what capabilities need to be on the carrier’s “white list” of requirements when it tests new handsets.

“Someone needs to manage that, so these kinds of things don’t happen,” Baitis said.

If Verizon manages to answer this question well, it’s going to hit the stars.

Verizon Strengths on VCast App Store

One software company working with Verizon that was featured at the conference reported a good experience so far. Music-streaming and purchasing application Slacker already appears on Verizon phones. Preparing the application to appear on Verizon wasn’t all easy, said Slacker President Jim Cady, but the carrier was willing to take input from Slacker, make reasonable compromises and make changes rapidly, he said.

The moderately sized meeting sold out, which bodes well for Verizon’s app store plans as well as its intention to open a West Coast research center in Silicon Valley next year. The carrier already has one on the East Coast, where it’s based. At the West Coast site, Verizon hopes to meet with some of the “best and brightest” mobile developers in the Valley.

“Hey, Verizon, it’s time to digg holes for monopolies, let’s do it.” said one excited developer.

Excitement is on the rise, let’s see how well can Verizon design their multi-vendor APIs.

May be it’s not in our fate to get Best Network with best Cell. but this is soon going to change for good.

To start with, the Palm Pre  will no longer be exclusive to the Sprint network, and will arrive on the Verizon Wireless network “Early next year,” said Verizon COO Denny Stigl during the carrier’s July 27 quarterly earnings call.

Strigl also said a BlackBerry Storm refresh and a device running the Google Android OS are on the way.

During the Q&A period, analysts asked Strigl and Verizon Chief Financial Officer John Killian about any pressure the carrier felt related to “competitive offerings,” and what devices were upcoming—a line of questioning seemingly intended to leak out details on the possibility of a Verizon iPhone. Instead, listeners learned there was a Palm Pre in the pipeline.

“You can expect to see a steady stream of attractive devices coming from Verizon Wireless,” said Strigl. “For example, we launched the BlackBerry Tour on July 12. We plan to refresh the Storm later this year.” Strigl continued, “Android is on our road map. We have Motorola devices that are coming, and we plan to offer the Palm Pre early next year, and we have continued excellent relationships with LG and Samsung. So yes, we do have a great device lineup.”

Wooho, Good things are coming.

Given that the two most attention-grabbing devices currently under exclusivity contacts, and which have succeeded in drawing enormous attention to their carriers, are the Apple iPhone on the AT&Tnetwork and the Palm Pre on the Sprint network.

AT&T’s exclusive rights to the iPhone are expected to expire in 2010, though exact details of the agreement aren’t known. How long Sprint would be the sole purveyor of the Pre is also unknown—particularly after Sprint CEO Dan Hesse told the press in early June that Sprint’s exclusivity contract with the Pre exceeded six months, and so consumers shouldn’t expect to find it on the Verizon or AT&T networks by then.

If the agreement is for a year, that would cue the arrival of a Verizon Palm Pre come May.\

For several months, rumors have been flying that Apple might be readying an iPhone for Verizon. And many loyal Verizon subscribers, who don’t want to leave the carrier, but really want the iPhone, have been waiting for news of a Verizon iPhone. But such an announcement is not likely coming anytime soon.

Strigl’s announcement could give these wireless customers and others looking for an alternative to the iPhone, a reason to stay with Verizon Wireless. Strigl admitted during the conference call that the iPhone 3GS, which went on sale in mid-June, hurt Verizon Wireless’ sales the last two weeks of June.

“The iPhone has clearly been a successful device,” Strigl said. “And it has expanded the overall phone market. We have been competing successfully and will continue to do so. But we did see an uptick in the last couple of weeks in June. (Still,) we think we are extremely well-positioned going forward. The lineup and pipeline of new products we have coming is strong.”
Like Strigl, Sprint’s Hesse also recently announced that his carrier would soon be releasing a mobile device running Google’s Android operating system. In Sprint’s case, the Android phone, likely from Motorola, will arrive before the end of the year.

Clearly, the iPhone deal has proven to be a major advantage for AT&T. The company announced that it had signed up 1.4 million new subscribers in the second quarter of 2009, about 300,000 more than Verizon signed up during the same quarter. AT&T also said it activated 2.4 million iPhones in the second quarter. And Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple, said that more than 1 million units of the new iPhone 3G were sold the first weekend the device was available.

And the only reason that AT&T has been able to reap all these rewards is because it is the only carrier offering the iPhone. If it had to share the iPhone with another carrier, like Verizon, it would drastically reduce the effect the phone has on its future profitability.

While Verizon defends the need for exclusive deals, the company has always competed on the merits of its network. The Palm Pre will simply give its customers another compelling smartphone choice. And it will give Palm a greater opportunity to sell handsets, given that Verizon is now the largest wireless operator in the U.S.

Verizon Wireless has long contended that it takes more than a single iconic handset to win in the wireless market long term. And this is why the company plans to build its new 4G wireless network. Strigl also announced during the call that Seattle and Boston would be the first two cities where the new 4G wireless network will be tested later this year. The network is expected to be commercially available in 2010. And it will be completed sometime in 2013.

Verizon executives have also said the company plans to offer its own application store for smartphones. Details of the new store will be released on Tuesday at the company’s developer conference in San Jose, Calif.

With all the upcoming deals : Palm Pre, Android, iPhone and 4G / LTE next year. Let’s see if Verizon makes a lengendary year ahead

But what Verizon is going to do, if successful, will change the concept. Verizon is joining with Vodafone, Japan’s SoftBank, and China Mobile to grab a chunk of the mobile-software market from the phonemakers to the Service providers.
Verizon Wireless CEO Lowell McAdams has lay down a global strategy to enter the App market, a move that could benefit the wireless industry.

Daring enough, Verizon Wireless is gearing up to challenge Apple in the market for software applications that are downloaded to cell phones. The movement itself is quiet brave because of the billion numbers of success of App Store.

Verizon, the no.1 US wireless operator, plans to preview its software store on July 28. They are pouring substantial resources into the effort. No doubt, it will be a struggle to catch up to Apple, which has built broad support among software developers and customers in the year since it launched its App Store.

Customers are flocking to devices such as the iPhone that offer myriad programs, and developers are cooking up software to meet the demand. You can use an iPhone to look for jobs, read golf greens, tune into digital radio, or play games. Juniper Research estimates sales of mobile applications could hit $25 billion in 2014, up from $5 billion this year.

What’s yet to be decided is who will control this market. Wireless carriers have long been the gatekeepers for what people do with their phones. But phonemakers, led by Apple and Research In Motion RIM, have grabbed an early lead by creating software stores that are easy for customers to use and profitable for developers. Apple says 100,000 developers have created more than 65,000 iPhone applications so far, and customers have downloaded those applications more than 1.5 billion times.

“It is going to be very hard for others to catch up,” boasted Apple CEO Steve Jobs in a July 14 press.

To get into the game, Verizon is crafting a strategy that’s more open and global than it has ever used in the past. It is teaming up with Vodafone, Japan’s SoftBank, and China Mobile to create a common software foundation. Developers will be able to write applications for the standard, which the carriers are calling the Joint Innovation Lab (JIL). When the store launches in the fall, it could reach as many as 1 billion customers, the combined total for the four operators. “I am not here to bash anybody, but if I could write one application that could touch every iPhone customer or one billion customers, who am I going to write for?” says Verizon Wireless CEO Lowell McAdam.

What it Does Mean for Developers
Part of the plan is to make it easier and cheaper for wireless software developers to work with Verizon and its partners. In the past, a developer would have to design an app to work with the dozens of handsetssupported by a carrier. Now Verizon says it will offer tools so developers can write one app that will work on all handsets developed under the JIL standard. Verizon is also expected to offer developers a greater share of the application revenue than in the past and a more streamlined certification process. Apps could appear in its catalog within days instead of weeks or months, says Verizon Vice-President Ryan Hughes. To woo the developer community, the company has organized a special conference for July 28 in San Jose, where it will unveil part of its plan.

Still, some developers remain skeptical. Josh Koppel, co-founder of ScrollMotion, a New York-based startup that has developed a hit electronic reader for the iPhone, says it plans to develop more apps for the iPhone, RIM’s BlackBerry, and Google’s Android system. Yet while he says the Verizon joint venture sounds exciting, he is not convinced the carriers have the software and design expertise needed to pull off such an enterprise. “Every company is suddenly making a mad scramble to make an app store,” says Koppel. “It doesn’t mean they know how.”

Though we heard that LTE is ready for showtime but despite these statements from telecom leaders, a major challenge is still left un-answered. As we know, 4G or LTE is based on packet switched networks rather than circuit switched that used to be in older standards (3G and 2G). This industry giant leap has added benefits of more bandwidth but has raised a crucial concern about incompatibility with older circuit-switched networks.

Till today we had been living in a circuit switched telecom cores connecting to ip network core as a legacy. IP was never our REAL core as far as Telecom mobile operators are concerned. A drastic movie has brought the issue of integrating the reverse i.e. Mobile core will be IP, and it will connect to older circuit switched networks for services like SMS, voice calls.

Verizon would be the first one but carriers like t-mobile are already ready for it. All of them are facing these challenges and implementing different solutions.

Currently, there are a few ways this problem can be tackled. For SMS and Voice, there is IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), the 3GPP way that delivers voice and SMS through IP architecture, like a VoIP system with messaging enabled. There is network hybridization, where the 4G network would only handle data and the legacy 2G/3G networks would handle voice and SMS. Finally, there is a Forum called VoLGA, or Voice over LTE via Generic Access, a spec based upon 3GPP’s GAN standard(wikipedia), which allows circuit switched traffic to be encapsulated into LTE packets.

VoLGA is backed by a Forum of wireless industry leaders such as Alcatel-Lucent, ZTE, Starent Networks, Nortel, and Ericsson, as well as consumer electronics companies LG, Motorola, Samsung, and Huawei, which are collectively known as the VoLGA Forum.

At the LTE Forum in May, T-Mobile’s core network architecture lead Franz Seiser said, “There’s a big risk if we don’t decide how to go forward with our cash cow…If we don’t get this right, we could put the whole of LTE at risk.”

The point is if more carriers are unified behind VoLGA, it is more likely to be approved as a 3GPP standard, and the technology could then move forward crossing the hurdles created today. Even though it is already a 3GPP standard, IMS innovation is reportedly slow and costly, and voLGA is a better alternative.

voLGA forum recently made a milestone with its second draft of the VoLGA spec in May, and estimates on wrapping-up by the end of the year to submit it to 3GPP release 10, the LTE Advanced official standard.

We hope to see more Carriers joining the Forum and making life of 4G demanding consumer easier.

The computing-as-a-service (CaaS) offering is the company’s most wide-reaching cloud-based operation to date, as Verizon is promoting it as a way to maintain servers and storage, manage network connections and have the option of using both physical and virtualized services.
Taking Virtualization Up a Notch: Download this special report

Cloud computing differs from traditional IT infrastructure because it treats IT more as a utility rather than as a piece of dedicated physical infrastructure that must be managed and upgraded internally. Ed Bugnion, CTO of Cisco’s Server Access and Virtualization Business Unit, described cloud computing at a Massachusetts Institute of Technology panel last month as a “nascent” technology that “has tremendous growth potential… it’s basically a transformation from IT in data centers to more virtualized technology.”

Mike Marcellin, the vice president of global product marketing for Verizon Business, says Verizon’s inclusion of adding physical databases to the cloud computing package is one of the big differentiators between Verizon and other companies’ offerings.

“Many offerings are built around virtualized servers,” he says. “We have those as well but we are also focused on physical servers. For database or e-mail applications, a physical database may make more sense than a virtualized environment.”

Because cloud computing is inherently more scalable than physical on-site infrastructure, Verizon says its CaaS package will be particularly useful for businesses that have widely varied bandwidth needs, such as seasonal retailers. The company says these services are pay-as-you-go, which will help companies “avoid having to build out for peak capacity requirements by buying new equipment and adding staff.”

Verizon also is providing several security measures for its CaaS offerings, such as a multi-tiered network with a virtual firewall and add-on features such as identity and access management, host intrusion detection and application vulnerability assessments.

Telecom carriers in recent months have upped their cloud computing offerings to compete with cloud services such as Google Apps, Azure and Rackspace. AT&T last month began offering a cloud storage service, while Verizon broadened the reach of its cloud-based software as a service network monitoring products.

Source: Networkworld

Essentially, Verizon argues that Cablevision is trying to pump all this bandwidth through their crappy cable infrastructure, and it won’t hold up, with bandwidth hogs lowering everybody else’s speeds. Furthermore, the true speeds will be slower once users have to deal with the speeds of the servers they’re trying to access. Oh, and also, nobody wants such high speeds.

I have worked with Verizon for 2 years, and I know their potential, If they come up with some words, Take my word, they`ll meet it. Infact, I believe me Verizon can happily giveout 1GBPS to every resident of US still have plenty of it left out for rest of the world… just kidding

But then they start bragging about how fast their service is. But wait, I thought no one wanted fast speeds and, in any case, fast speeds were impossible to actually get thanks to slow servers? Which is it?

The fact of the matter is this: Cablevision is offering higher speeds at lower prices than you, Verizon. You can make your BS contradictory arguments all you want, but no one is going to pay you much mind. Offer up higher speeds at lower prices. That is what people will notice.

Bring on the battle of the high-speed providers, I say and we should see price falls. I’m waiting for verizon to bang Indian broadband life. Give us 10mbps to every home in india at cheaper deals. Come fight with airtel.