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Verizon Opening Up Network - “Any App, Any Device”

Posted on Tuesday, Nov 27, 2007 by Dieter Bohn
 
Filed Under: News; Tags: verizon, BlackBerrry

10 Articleimages 2007 09 Articleimages Media Verizonlogo

jkOnTheRun has some great news for us: Verizon intends to get a little nicer with their network with a new program called “Any App, Any Device.” The upshot is that any customer can bring any compatible device to the big VZW and VZW will let 'em. This basically means that if you can get Sprint to unlock your phone, Verizon will pretty much take it.

Actually, it really means a whole lot more: If you can build your own cellphone that works on Verizon, Verizon will take it. After they test it and charge a testing fee, of course, they're not madmen. Still - this is great news, though I wouldn't go so far as to call it a seismic shift.

And as jk's Kevin Tofel notes, Verizon is thinking about moving to LTE (which is GSM-ish) for their 4G standard someday - which would mean that “Any Device” would cover a heckuva lot more devices.

Be still my heart - are carriers becoming less evil?

In early 2008, the company will publish the technical standards the development community will need to design products to interface with the Verizon Wireless network. Any device that meets the minimum technical standard will be activated on the network. Devices will be tested and approved in a $20 million state-of-the-art testing lab which received an additional investment this year to gear up for the anticipated new demand. Any application the customer chooses will be allowed on these devices.

Read: Verizon Wireless To Introduce ‘Any Apps, Any Device’ Option For Customers In 2008

 
 

Comments

Read this article that sounded interesting and thought I would pass it along.

Hopefully it ends up being as good as their making it sound ;)

http://news.vzw.com/news/2007/11/pr2007-11-27.html


Joey
Submitted by joey304 (not verified) on Tue, 11/27/2007 - 08:29.
Didn't I just post about this? :)

Just trying to avoid doubling posting!

http://discussion.treocentral.com/showthread.php?t=156918
Submitted by joey304 (not verified) on Tue, 11/27/2007 - 11:12.
Any device? Any Application?

Behold the end of the world is in sight!
Submitted by duanedude1 (not verified) on Tue, 11/27/2007 - 11:43.
"Any" is like that other dangerous word "unlimited." I think the key phrase as "any compatible device". Key word: compatible. ;)
Submitted by taroliw (not verified) on Tue, 11/27/2007 - 12:11.
merged. When I post to WMExperts it makes a thread automagically and I forgot to check for dupes.
Submitted by Dieter Bohn on Tue, 11/27/2007 - 12:49.
Any device? Any Application?

Behold the end of the world is in sight!


Do you think they'd test my toaster? :D :D
Submitted by Dieter Bohn on Tue, 11/27/2007 - 12:49.
Hopefully we'll get lucky and Sprint will follow suit...
Submitted by gksmithlcw (not verified) on Tue, 11/27/2007 - 12:55.
Do you think they'd test my toaster? :D :D


I just want a phone that works the way it should!
Submitted by joey304 (not verified) on Tue, 11/27/2007 - 13:01.
it goes without saying that Alltel uses CDMA too. Well, ok, it doesn't go without saying since I just had to say it.
Submitted by Mike Overbo on Tue, 11/27/2007 - 13:33.
sure...as long as you pay the special fee for non verizon equipment. :-)
Submitted by mikec (not verified) on Tue, 11/27/2007 - 14:35.
This will make things very interesting. So which carrier will come out as the winner?
Did we buy to soon?
will there be price wars?


http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/detail?blogid=19&entry_id=22260
Submitted by g.711 (not verified) on Tue, 11/27/2007 - 16:45.
Of course no mention as to the terms yet...

This is not surprising, the U.S wireless cartel makes money from contracts, selling a service. For the most part, consumer equipment has been the carrot, a loss leader. Believe it or not, if the cartel can convince us to bring are own phones to the table, it probably will mean more of our money in their pockets.

Now a true pay-as-you-go non-contractual bulk minute and data plan for any phone, that would be news!
Submitted by pelona (not verified) on Tue, 11/27/2007 - 16:58.
It may lead to phones being released with both technologies, but not soon. They would have to have CDMA/EVDO, GSM, GSM T-Mobile, HSDPA, HSDPA T-Mobile, etc etc. A little too much for one phone IMO, but we'll see. The iPhone will not be on Verizon until the iPhone has a CDMA radio inside of it.

This may be a big deal, or may just be (why give the subsidy if we don't have to?) a business ploy.
Submitted by Pattycerts (not verified) on Tue, 11/27/2007 - 22:39.
This may be a big deal, or may just be (why give the subsidy if we don't have to?) a business ploy.
Agreed. We can only hope that "no subsidy" also means "no contract." For if there is no financial incentive to draw me in, I see no reason to be trapped.
Submitted by taroliw (not verified) on Wed, 11/28/2007 - 01:45.
What do you think? Will it REALLY make a differnce?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/27/AR2007112701077.html?hpid=sec-business
Submitted by rcyphermd (not verified) on Wed, 11/28/2007 - 08:08.
What do you think? Will it really make a difference?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/27/AR2007112701077.html?hpid=sec-business
Submitted by rcyphermd (not verified) on Wed, 11/28/2007 - 08:09.
What do you think? Will it make a difference?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/27/AR2007112701077.html?hpid=sec-business
Submitted by rcyphermd (not verified) on Wed, 11/28/2007 - 08:11.
It won't change anything. As far as I know, there are only 7 companies using, CDMA . ( Sprint PCS, Alltel, U.S. Cellular, Cricket, Midwest Wireless, MetroPCS and Verizon). They have no plans to move away from it, so you're right back where you started.
Submitted by CPL Radar (not verified) on Wed, 11/28/2007 - 08:35.
I just hope Sprint follows suit...
Submitted by gksmithlcw (not verified) on Wed, 11/28/2007 - 09:00.
I thought sprint was doing something like that; where you can take any unlocked CDMA phone, call them, or go to this website and switch your phones when ever.



I swore i seen a post on that here, not too long ago; but now i cant find it for the life of me.


heck, if I recall even you posted in that thread gksmithlcw
Submitted by airibis (not verified) on Wed, 11/28/2007 - 09:53.
Last I heard, Sprint was unlocking phones but I don't know anything about them allowing unlocked phones as of yet.

Also, Sprint was gearing up to allow online ESN swaps but I think it still has to be Sprint phones.

I guess we'll see.
Submitted by gksmithlcw (not verified) on Wed, 11/28/2007 - 10:23.
I don't think it will make huge difference, but it is a good development. This only means cell phone makers has a better chance of selling one model to work on both Verizon and Sprint. For example, one can buy a Centro from Sprint and then switch to use it on Verizon network. But most people would want get the discount by signing a service contract, so the impact on Sprint is small. Also this does not prevent Sprint or Verizon to get exclusive rights of a phone model, which means you may still have to buy the phone from one carrier for a period of time, like what happens to Centro.
Submitted by ksom (not verified) on Wed, 11/28/2007 - 10:28.
Unless the phone OEMs start producing more CDMA phones, this announcement won't matter much.
Submitted by Deltaflyer (not verified) on Wed, 11/28/2007 - 10:45.
Last I heard, Sprint was unlocking phones but I don't know anything about them allowing unlocked phones as of yet.

Also, Sprint was gearing up to allow online ESN swaps but I think it still has to be Sprint phones.

I guess we'll see.


With all the carriers' copycatting of customer policies going on in order to just keep up and not lose more revenue, I'm pretty certain Sprint will offer their own variation on the theme ... eventually.
Submitted by lifes2short (not verified) on Wed, 11/28/2007 - 10:53.
[quote=Deltaflyer;1380689]Unless the phone OEMs start producing more CDMA phones, this announcement won't matter much.

THAT is exactly the point. It's all terrific news, and could mean a lot of great things. IF we get the handsets that GSM providers get.
Submitted by Alienwhere (not verified) on Wed, 11/28/2007 - 13:01.
Last I heard, Sprint was unlocking phones but I don't know anything about them allowing unlocked phones as of yet.

Also, Sprint was gearing up to allow online ESN swaps but I think it still has to be Sprint phones.

I guess we'll see.


That feature isn't available until you are migrated to the new billing system Ensemble from what I've heard.
Submitted by LbSigMan (not verified) on Wed, 11/28/2007 - 14:02.
It won't change anything. As far as I know, there are only 7 companies using, CDMA . ( Sprint PCS, Alltel, U.S. Cellular, Cricket, Midwest Wireless, MetroPCS and Verizon). They have no plans to move away from it, so you're right back where you started.


Wrong. You can say for example verizon doesn't have the 755, in this case you would then be able to take the sprint 755 and activate it with verizon if you wanted to.. or if sprint were to do the same thing you would be able to take the new voyager thats only with verizon and activate it on sprint. I see a real benifit in doing this. Opens a whole lot of choices to the end consumer.

CDMA has way better quality than GSM anyways. And since only a very small percentage of people using cell phones travel overseas there's really no reason for any of those big carriers to convert.
Submitted by syphex (not verified) on Wed, 11/28/2007 - 14:48.
With all the carriers' copycatting of customer policies going on in order to just keep up and not lose more revenue, I'm pretty certain Sprint will offer their own variation on the theme ... eventually.

First off, this thread is in a bunch of forums already and is almost being spammed here--should be in Treo General or OT.

...but anyways :p Sprint does have their own twist already, besides the "unlock" thing, which is really not a big deal.

WiMax is going to be completely open--meaning any 3rd party device with a Wimax chip can access the network. It'd be like a regional hotpsot, to use familiar jargon.

There is even talk of it being free but with limited connectivity speeds (300kbps) and only 1 device. Paying customers obviously get much, much higher speeds and can have multiple devices. This is reportedly part of the Gov't plan for open, easy access to the internet. Chris Price at phonenews.com had an article about it.

Also, laptop manufactures are starting to put Wimax (piggy backed on Wifi chips) in laptops. I imagine we'll also see cameras soon too equipped with the little chip.

Now, AFAIK, Wimax is still not a voice protocol--so it's straight data. In that regard, it's quite different than what Verizon is doing. Still, it could be as big, if not bigger than that move.
Submitted by Malatesta on Wed, 11/28/2007 - 16:32.
You're still only limited to phones from 7 companies. How does that change anything?
Submitted by CPL Radar (not verified) on Wed, 11/28/2007 - 16:33.
Because it would drastically open up more phones to the market of consumers wanting different phones but cant buy them because they are with another carrier.

I also think if all the major carriers did that it would allow more phone manifacturers to start making more phones for cdma carriers knowing that people could just switch carriers like you can do with gsm phones.
Submitted by syphex (not verified) on Wed, 11/28/2007 - 18:23.
Doesn't the announcement say that only "approved" handsets will be allowed? So if the 755p is not officially "approved" by verizon then will it still be allowed on the VZ network?

I don't know either way...I'm just trying to interpret the corporatespeak...
Submitted by GoogleNerd (not verified) on Wed, 11/28/2007 - 21:24.
Funny. For years they did everything they could to avoid being "pipes" and trying to get their piece of the lucrative services business, now Verizon seems willing to be a pipe.

Is it 700mhz preemptive? FCC regulation preemptive?

Interesting at least, but as others have said, GSM phones will still be excluded by nature of the incompatible CDMA technology (we'll see what 4G brings, though, depending how Vodafon steers them...)
Submitted by Rene Ritchie (not verified) on Wed, 11/28/2007 - 21:44.
It's probably a bit of both, perhaps slightly tilted toward fear of regulation. "See? We're being good... please don't regulate us!" Moreso, I think a lot of this is driven by this whole domino effect that you see happen now when one of them makes a policy change. Suddenly the others have to follow suit or they're seen as laggards.

Gosh... doesn't it sound an awful lot like the airline industry? Hmm... And look at their wonderful customer service! :D
Submitted by taroliw (not verified) on Wed, 11/28/2007 - 22:08.
I predicted this years ago when they were bidding on WCDMA bands. Pretty soon you'll be able to use all the networks at the same time because they'll all be interchangable universally. All the devices will use an open OS that will be compatable with more platforms, and the platforms is where the real differences will be. Just like when the dreamers of JAVA technology were trying to make that happen. The electrical devices in your home, on the street and in the office will be communicating with each other so any and every one will know everything about what you are doing before you know what you want to do.

Sorry, if I got too abstract.
Submitted by d1hamby (not verified) on Wed, 11/28/2007 - 22:13.
sounds like a horrible place to live.
Submitted by matty032 (not verified) on Wed, 11/28/2007 - 22:38.
Wrong. You can say for example verizon doesn't have the 755, in this case you would then be able to take the sprint 755 and activate it with verizon if you wanted to.. or if sprint were to do the same thing you would be able to take the new voyager thats only with verizon and activate it on sprint. I see a real benifit in doing this. Opens a whole lot of choices to the end consumer.

[COLOR="Red">CDMA has way better quality than GSM anyways[/COLOR]. And since only a very small percentage of people using cell phones travel overseas there's really no reason for any of those big carriers to convert.


Got that right. CDMA is actually newer technological wise of the two and is better when handling a higher data rate on CDMA networks, hence 4G. GSM is going to always be behind CDMA in the data area. IMHO, having experienced both...GSM sound quality seems more cellular sounding while I have found CDMA's to be more comparable to a lan line with crystal clarity. Europe is the one that needs to make a change.
Submitted by KStewart (not verified) on Wed, 11/28/2007 - 22:38.
ISuddenly the others have to follow suit or they're seen as laggards.
Hopefully the rest of those money-grubbing laggards will follow Verizon's lead on prorated Early Termination Fees too - like AT&T recently announced.
Submitted by Kupe (not verified) on Wed, 11/28/2007 - 22:45.
Hopefully the rest of those money-grubbing laggards will follow Verizon's lead on prorated Early Termination Fees too - like AT&T recently announced.


Unfortunately, as a matter of Verizon's new ETF policy, it's only available to new customers. Don't know if any existing customers have successfully had the new policy extended to them or not.
Submitted by lifes2short (not verified) on Thu, 11/29/2007 - 12:04.

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