Phones

Verizon publicó la semana pasada los resultados unas pruebas llevadas a cabo con su red con p4p, y según parece hasta el 58% del tráfico P2P puede obtenerse desde el interior de su red Internet.

Margaret sent me to the Verizon store yesterday because the microphone on my cell phone no longer works. I didn’t come away with an audible sell, because the very patient Verizon franchisee explained that I wasn’t eligible for a new phone till April 8 — at which time I could receive a “free” phone if I re-upped for another two-year contract.

I’m writing this from my car. No, I’m not driving, but we are moving at 60mph on the highway. I’m posting via Macbook, connected via bluetooth to my e815, which is in turn connected to Verizon Wireless. It rocks!

For the first night of the entire trip, my Verizon internet service and my Verizon phone are totally out of range. I am writing this at 8:30 Monday night but it will not be posted until we are within range of something, tomorrow we hope.

The National Football League and Verizon Communications have agreed to deliver live NFL Network sports and entertainment programming via Verizon's consumer broadband services, beginning Dec. 7 with the matchup between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Cleveland Browns. Verizon already offers the NFL Network television channel to subscribers of its FiOS TV Service and is the only Internet service provider to deliver selected NFL Network programming over broadband.

I’m sure that the Verizon’s and Cingular’s of the world are loving that comment. No wonder they are choosing their own search platforms and not Google. But not everyone is scared of the big G, at least in Europe.

We’re still in the land of no Verizon internet service so this will get posted when it does, perhaps not for a couple of days.

Qwest: The spirit of service! Just not rebates!: I had had free Internet at the home for about 8 months when it finally got shut down. No problem. I looked at both a cable modem and DSL. I know, I know. DSL stinks in comparison no matter how many Verizon or Qwest commercials tell you otherwise (do people still use dial-up?!). That said, there was an offer for $25 off and only $19.99 per month for the first year for DSL from Qwest. I bit and went for it. Flash forward a few months later.

Some senators think the public doesn’t care about this issue. They think we don’t know companies like AT&T and Verizon are spending millions lobbying Congress to eliminate Net Neutrality and give them more over control of the Internet. But petition deliveries in 50 locations across the nation next week will prove them wrong.

T-Mobile’s strengths were a good handset lineup and the cheapest prices amongst all the major US carriers (their prepaid “T-Mobile To Go” service is really good in terms of pricing and phones, too). But if prices and phones were all that mattered, everyone in the US with a mobile phone would be using T-Mobile right now. So why does Verizon have so many subscribers?

On May 24th I took a test for a Verizon job and, at the time, their machine for doing the grading was not working so they had to mail out the tests to get graded. We were told that we’d hear back within two weeks. So I waited…

Last week Verizon Wireless announced a brand new service, entitled “Chaperone”, which is intended to help parents keep track of their children. The new “chaperone” service works by tracking the child’s phone by using the GPS technologies, which the majority of new phones have. This service goes a step further by plotting their child’s location on a real-time map which is accessible either from Verizon’s website or from the parent’s phone.

Senators and Representatives may have been a little surprised by the amount of heat the net neutrality issue has been generating. Both chambers of Congress have seen extensive lobbying from pro and anti-neutrality groups. The pro neutrality lobby is an odd collection of bedfellows. MoveOn.org, the Christian Coalition, Gun Owners of America, Microsoft, Google and a host of others have all signed on to keep the common carriage rules in place — that is to maintain the open-access-for-all model that we have now. The anti-neutrality lobby is comprised primarily of big telcos –- AT&T, BellSouth, Cingular and Verizon –- that want the FCC to allow packet prioritization, which would introduce a new pay-to-play internet.

Verizon inherited the Airfone service when it bought GTE in 2000. And it hasn’t made any profits since from the phones aboard a thousand United, US Airways, Continental and Delta Airlines aircraft. Airfone’s pricey service just wasn’t worth it - customers with their own wireless handsets were willing to hold off on making calls until landing, rather than pick up that Airfone.

If I've totally confused you, just watch this video from Ask a Ninja. The Ninja should clear things up for you. After watching the video, visit http://www.savetheinternet.com to see how you can help save the internet from the Telco mob.

Companies like AT&T, Verizon, & Bellsouth are lobbying as strong as they can to remove net neutrality. What is net neutrality you ask, it’s what allows you to visit any site you want and have an equally strong internet signal… you can enjoy google just as easily as your favorite little blog site with the same speed internet.

Verizon Communications warned the financial services industry may not get the secure networks it needs if Congress adopts laws governing high-speed Internet broadband networks, according to a company memo obtained by Reuters on Monday.

What's remarkable about this result is the shift that occurred on Capitol Hill in the week prior to the vote. An unlikely coalition of political activists from the right and left, consumer groups, bloggers and Internet gurus banded together at SavetheInternet.com and sent more than 250,000 letters to Congress. This sparked an Internet revolt among bloggers who heaped scorn upon any member of the House who dared side with companies like AT&T and Verizon, which are spending millions of dollars in Washington to dismantle the rules that would stop their plans to control Internet content.

In the announced deal, ABC shows like “Lost” and “Desperate Housewives” will be offered on abc.com for consumption while SoapNet’s as-yet-to-be-named programming will be available only to Verizon DSL customers. This is only guaranteed for two months - May and June - the “trial” period. However, if everything succeeds as I expect it to - this service will not only continue but will be matched by NBC, CBS, and FOX. Nothing could be better for the viewing public in my opinion.

I got my new phone on Tuesday. It's a Verizon Wireless LG VX5200.

This message was sent using PIX-FLIX Messaging service from Verizon Wireless!

The same situation existed in the USA until the Brand X decision was handed down, and that led to the rapid unraveling of domestic UNE regulations. The result? AT&T and Verizon have now committed billions of dollars to build state of the art infrastructure.

I was tired of not having bluetooth and other fun things like that on my Samsung a670 phone from Verizon, so I went out today at lunch and bought a new one. I got the Motorola E815 (also from Verizon). It’s not the newest phone out there, but of the phones that Verizon offers it’s the cheapest one with bluetooth, a speakerphone, and (even though it doesn’t say so on the Verizon website) EV-DO. It’s also got a much bigger and nicer screen so I won’t have to scroll as much with text messages and pictures will look prettier.

So my good friend and co-worker Brad Luers(B~rad in the comments here) just found his long lost twin. Tell me him and the new Verizon Wireless guy weren’t seperated at birth:

Verizon, Comcast, Bell South and other communications giants are developing strategies that would track and store information on our every move in cyberspace in a vast data-collection and marketing system, the scope of which could rival the National Security Agency. According to white papers now being circulated in the cable, telephone and telecommunications industries, those with the deepest pockets--corporations, special-interest groups and major advertisers--would get preferred treatment. Content from these providers would have first priority on our computer and television screens, while information seen as undesirable, such as peer-to-peer communications, could be relegated to a slow lane or simply shut out.

There has been an awe inspiring amount of uninformed chatter with regards to Vinton Cerf (works for Google now, don’t forget) pointing a finger at Verizon for reserving 80% of their network bandwidth for themselves. It all started with this Businessweek Article. I really need to stop writing about Verizon, Net Neutrality, etc but people’s attitudes on some of these subjects have me all jacked up…. and my friends know that when I get jacked up I can’t shut up.

Apple’s business today is a unique synthesis of fashion and function. That is a powerful combination so long as both parts can be sustained. It is astonishingly easy and enjoyable to use the Mac and Apple’s other hardware and software products, all of which are tightly integrated. And that is exactly what potentially threatens not only Google and Microsoft, but Yahoo, AOL, MySpace, and even Comcast, Verizon Wireless and Tivo — any company that aims to build electronic entertainment or productivity-related services for consumers.

Probably in the meantime I need to look and see if there is some easy way of getting to a Comcast engineer. Worthless script monkey CSRs are not going to be able to help me with this issue, as there is something really “odd” going on with my connection. I’ve got mounds of information at this point and hopefully someone with access to the Comcast network can take it and look at what is going on once it enters their network and figure out WTF is going on. At this point I’ve just been leaving my laptop hooked up to the VPN at my Dad’s house so I have some upload or using the Verizon air card I have. Sad part is, both work better at this point for doing anything (besides straight download) than my straight Comcast connection. Here at home my Verizon card is getting 222K Down and 115K Up. Absolutely pathetic when your wireless card is faster than your cable connection.

We just got DSL at home and we absolutely love it. It rocks. But we also have two computers…and Verizon steered me a little off track when I ordered the modem instead of the router.

And that’s where Google comes in. More by following the link, but it has more plot twists than a bad mystery novel.

Yep, it works like a charm. I got a cellular wireless card the other day and got to use it today. Driving from State College to Philadelphia today my wife pulled out my PowerBook, slid the card in, connected to Verizon and spent the last two hours of trip on the Internet. This is a very good thing. Opens up a whole host of opportunities. The speed of the card isn’t what we are used to in the broadband world we live in, but being able to get online while driving is amazing … pages loaded just fine, we didn’t drop a connection once. It was great being able to keep up on the Nittany Lions while she read the news and browsed blogs. As a matter of fact I am using now that I am sitting in a sports bar watching the second half to write this post. I hate to beat a dead horse with this, but I am amazed.

The recently introduced Verizon FiOS is a step in the right direction in my opinion. Sadly, not many places offer availability. For the same price, I can get 15mbps. Damn! More so, I would LOVE to have the 2mbps upload capability. Seriously, I don’t know why the US just doesn’t create more affordable high-speed connections.

I’ve finished my review of the Samsung SCH-A950. Released for Verizon Wireless a few days ago, the A950 is among a handful of MP3-capable cell phones in Verizon’s portfolio. No doubt gearing up for the upcoming holiday season, the A950 now joins to the LG VX8100, LG VX9800, and Motorola E815 of VCAST enabled EV-DO, multimedia superphones.

So, this train wreck of a situation is pissing me off. I do understand where Level 3 is coming from, but I wish they’d have given some warning or at least taken into consideration their customer base. I think Time Warner (RoadRunner), Comcast, and Verizon are some of the bigger names effected by this.

In other news, the venerable Verizon Wireless called last night and invited me to a job expo next week! Can you imagine? 4 million people in this state and they called me! :-D Well, I’m going. The shareholders of my company —which shall remain unnamed— voted to have Verizon purchase us today anyway. May as well see if I can beat my colleagues to the punch! Seriously though, this is the first ‘real’ opportunity I’ve had since August. I’ve interviewed with Verizon twice in my life already, but it’s never worked out on either side. They just keep coming around! Maybe this one will stick.

Philadelphia has selected EarthLink from among 12 vendors that bid on implementing a citywide wireless network. Key to the city’s choice of EarthLink, said Dianah Neff, CIO of Philadelphia, was the company’s proposal that it fund all of the infrastructure for and management of the network. Critics of the city’s planned municipal network, including Verizon, which offers similar services locally, had argued that taxpayer money should not be used for projects that compete with incumbent businesses. EarthLink’s proposal sidesteps that problem.

Mischa, one of my co-workers, recently signed up for Verizon Wireless Internet BroadbandAccess. She’s been trying it out today in downtown San Francisco, and she’s very impressed with the speed and ease of use.

Just this week, Texas governor Rick Perry signed legislation to make it easier for telephone companies to provide IPTV to Texas consumers. The legislation was needed because telecommunications firms SBC and Verizon were having trouble entering the video market due to cable franchising regulations.

: The love fest continues…Sprint PCS and Verizon Wireless have debuted an inter-carrier MMS agreement between the two companies, allowing more than 70 million wireless customers to exchange picture and video messages with directly from their camera phones.

notwithstanding the holy schmoly kodaks, the hike itself was not that fun. but the camping was bad ass, and when you get to the summit you feel, um, (insert half-baked descriptives). dude, you’re really high. also, it is definitely a place for people who don’t like fences and truck exhaust and verizon wireless and chipotle.

In a rare corporate display of coming out against something they stand to benefit from, Cingular has sent a missive to the FAA indicating their position against lifting the in-flight cellphone ban. Their official take on the matter is that there is “a time and a place for wireless phone conversations, and seldom does that include the confines of an airplane flight.” They even go so far as to say that, should the ban be lifted, they would be encouraging its customers to refrain from in-flight talking and use data services only (”tap, not talk”). However, oddly, in a joint letter to the FCC with Verizon, they indicated they might support lifting the ban if safeguards were in place to protect consumers on the ground from interference. So… which is it, dudes?

That's what I did. A year after moving to Los Angeles from New York, I was reading my Verizon Wireless bill and noticed I was still paying New York taxes. New York, as it happens, has the highest state and local taxes in the country: 16.2% (if you add federal charges, it's 22.2%). I estimated I was giving my former city and state about $75 per year they didn't deserve.

Cellular companies are reluctant to say how much they make from their directory assistance services, though Verizon Wireless spokesman Paul Lemchak called it a "pretty good business."

Three former Bell companies are upgrading their networks with optical fiber so they can deliver television to consumers. It's a multibillion-dollar undertaking that will stretch out for years. But it will take even longer if SBC, Verizon and BellSouth also must secure video franchises from every city, village and hamlet where they operate.

I did have one backup solution. If all attempts failed, I'd use Verizon's DSL software CD to make it reconfigure everything on the PC. And it worked. Makes me wonder why I called Verizon in the first place.

Video Clips can be accessed from the Get It Now data store on Verizon Wireless for the LGvx8000, Samsung a890 & CDM8940 cell phones.

In what may be the first great news about enhanced 9-1-1 service for VoIP providers, Verizon announced today that it will allow VoIP providers to access its enhanced 9-1-1 infrastructure, linking VoIP callers to public safety answering points in New York City this summer. If this initial connection is successful, Verizon will extend the arrangement to other localities.

The analysts conclude that Cingular is simply over-committed right now and does not have the resources to meet its original 3G schedule. If Cingular is scaling back its 3G plans, it could lose even more ground to rival Verizon Wireless, which launched 3G in the US at the end of 2003. Verizon is aggressively building out its EV-DO network and will likely remain the US 3G market leader, especially if Cingular pulls back on its 3G plans.

Opportunities for cross-promotions abound but are unlikely to take off on a big scale until more sophisticated multimedia messaging supplants today's simple texts. The reason is economics. Say the Boston Red Sox teams up with Verizon Wireless in a promotion to get fans to vote for their favorite player on an ESPN telecast. Today, those three companies would have to divvy up the text revenues, which average only 3 cents to 10 cents apiece in the U.S. But within two years, say analysts, multimedia messages, complete with color video and music, might...

And with Verizon spending about $1,000 per home to connect residents to it's new fiber-optic network in Texas, according to a Monday Associated Press article, a slow rollout is the last thing the telecoms want. The AP article says that now the phone companies will turn to Washington for legislative relief as opposed to going to each state. Because if SBC can't win in its home state, it doesn't look good for the rest of the industry.