Google has announced that it will invest 4.6 billion dollars to acquire radio frequencies being abandoned by television broadcasts as they turn digital. The frequencies could be used to provide wireless phone and data services.
verizon
Google Phone Is Coming: Google Says It Will Invest 4.6 Billion To Aquire Wireless Frequencies
By 7.21.07
Verizon To Pay $6 Million For Sending Junk Faxes
By 7.21.07
Verizon will pay $6 million to businesses in Louisiana, Florida, and Alabama for sending 10,145 junk faxes advertising its services. The Telephone Consumer Protection Act bans businesses from sending unsolicited faxes, and allows for fines reaching up to $1,500 for each violation. Verizon will pay class members only $625 per fax, despite their crack legal team’s best efforts to deploy novel and absurd legal arguments in Verizon’s defense.
Amp'd Mobile Bankruptcy Costing Verizon $370,000 A Day
By 7.19.07
Verizon Wireless said that as of June 23, Amp’d Mobile had incurred $15.6 million in post-bankruptcy charges and is costing the carrier $370,000 a day, but still has not obtained debtor-in-possession financing that would assure the carrier that its bills will be paid. Verizon Wireless said it has received one payment of $2.5 million, which was supposed to placate the operator and allow Amp’d Mobile to have continued access to its network.
At the time of the bankruptcy filing, Amp’d had already run up $41 million in unpaid bills to Verizon, in addition to the aforementioned $15.6 million.The Pioneer Press reports that Amp’d has about $9,000 in cash. This means that you are likely richer than Amp’d mobile.
Get $40 Off Your Verizon Landline Bill
By 7.16.07
You can call 1-888-226-0799 and request a $40 Customer Appreciation Service Credit off your Verizon landline, says Huster $$$ Blog. Just tell ’em you got a promotional notice in the mail. It’s said to have been tested and to work for California, Florida, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, Texas, and Virginia. We tried it this morning and got the credit, $10 off for the next four months. They tried to pitch us DirecTV but we told ’em we just read books and newspapers.
By 7.9.07
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The speed sounds great, but did you know Verizon also removes all your old copper phone lines when they install FiOS?
Even If You Manage To Unlock iPhone, It Will Only Work With T-Mobile
By 7.6.07
In case you’re wondering why Consumerist isn’t writing a bunch of posts on how to hack your iPhone to get it to work on “any network,” here is why:
"Automatic Bill Payment" Means Verizon Pays Your Bill, Then Sends You Another One
By 7.3.07
Just when you think you’ve head everything, Rebecca writes you. She thought she’d set up her Verizon DSL with automatic payments. When she could suddenly no longer log in to her Verizon email, she called them up and found out that she was way overdue. Once she paid her past balance, and waited several days for Verizon to turn her service back on, she logged in to her account and sure enough she did have automatic payments set up:
Vonage's $3.99 Retention Plan
By 6.30.07
Vonage offers a $3.99 per month retention plan to customers who might jump ship to providers with more certain futures. The plan is meant to shore-up Vonage’s customer churn rate, especially as the internet telephony company struggles to stay alive amidst a patent dispute with Verizon. Vonage’s churn rate last quarter was 2.4%, high enough to spook investors or anyone considering a potential acquisition. A comment left by a self-avowed Vonage flack tries to put a positive spin on the offering:
ITC Bans Import Of Cellphones With Qualcomm Chips
By 6.11.07
The U.S. International Trade Commission has banned Qualcomm from importing cellphone chips that infringe on a patent held by rival Broadcom. The chip in question, which is found in almost 80% of Verizon phones, uses a patented process to save power in the absence of cell coverage.
Phone Books Are Getting Thinner As Cellphones Take Over
By 6.8.07
One upon a time if you knew someone’s name, you could go to a thing called a “phone book” and look up their phone number and where they lived.
Verizon Increases Fee For NOT Making Long Distance Calls To $4
By 5.31.07
In case you weren’t aware, Verizon charges you a $2 fee for the “ability” to make long-distance calls. The only way to get this fee removed is to have your long-distance service blocked or to make more than $2 worth of calls every month. Sound stupid? Well, according to the bill that reader Troy just got, that stupid fee is about to double.
Verizon Retail Salespeople Randomly Access Your Account, Add Features
By 5.30.07
Christy is upset. She got a call from a strange Verizon sales rep who claimed he had sold her a phone. (He didn’t.) The stranger told her that she could have VCast free for one month. She declined.
Which ISPs Are Spying On You?
By 5.30.07
You know, the cynic in us says that the answer to the question “Which ISPs Are Spying On You?” is “all of them,” but Wired actually bothered to ask the 8 largest ISPs about their data retention policies. The sad part? Only 4 responded.
Let's All Learn Some Cellphone Acronyms
By 5.25.07
Let’s face it. Cellphones are here to stay and you need to know a little something about how they work if you’re going to know which one is right for you. Over at Yahoo! they’ve got a list of some cell phone acronyms that you could learn, thereby increasing your knowledge of the world around you. We know most of our readers are pretty well versed in everything cellphone, but its still worth taking a look.
Vonage Is Like, "We Are Totally Working Around Those Verizon Patents, OK?"
By 5.16.07
We’re not sure if it’s hip to be on Team Vonage, but to hell with it. We are. At least, we’d like them to stay in business so they can worry about things like improving their crap customer service and not “Oh God, are we going to be able to feed Tiny Tim this Christmas?” We’re pro-capitalism like that. Anyhow, we’re pleased to announce that Vonage claims to be able to work around Verizon’s parents.
Materially Adverse Clauses For All Major Cellphones – So You Can Escape Contract Without Termination Fee
By 5.9.07
Here’s a roundup of all the contract clauses regarding “materially adverse changes” for all the major cellphone carriers. When they starting charging new fees or raise the price of a service, you can use this section to argue that you need to be let out of contract without early termination fee….
Verizon's New Surcharge For Calling Mexico Means It's Contract Cancel Party Time?
By 5.9.07
Materially adverse changes to contract mean the contract is void. Is Verizon’s new surcharge for calling Mexico a materially adverse change? The following was included in customer’s April Verizon Wireless bill:
