Earlier this month, Verizon Wireless made a deal with Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks to buy billions of dollars of those companies’ collectively held wireless spectrum. Now it looks like yet another cable provider is looking to get out of the wireless business, as Cox has agreed to sell off its advanced wireless spectrum to VZW for $315 million. [More]
verizon wireless
Think Your Mobile Payments Are Protected? Depends On Your Carrier
By 12.14.11
Just about any new cellphone or tablet allows the user to make digital purchases that are subsequently charged to their wireless account. And while the four major wireless providers — AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile — claim to provide ample protections for customers, our pals at Consumers Union have found that users may not be getting fewer protections than they would for purchases made using a credit or debit card. [More]
AT&T Once Again Brings Up The Rear In Consumer Reports' Cellphone Satisfaction Survey
By 12.6.11
For the second year in a row, AT&T’s wireless service finds itself at the bottom of the ratings in a customer satisfaction survey done by our cohorts at Consumer Reports. [More]
Verizon Blocks Google Wallet On Some New Smartphones
By 12.6.11
The Samsung Galaxy Nexus may run on Google’s Android OS, but that doesn’t mean Verizon Wireless is going to allow the device to run Google’s pay-by-phone app Google Wallet. [More]
Comcast, Time Warner Cable Give Up Dreams Of Becoming Wireless Powerhouses, Sell Spectrum To Verizon
By 12.2.11
Over the last decade, cable companies have done a decent job of picking up ground in the home phone market, and many have attempted to make inroads into selling wireless data services. But it looks like two cable titans have given up their dreams of becoming wireless wonders, as Comcast and Time Warner Cable have sold billions of dollars of spectrum to Verizon Wireless. [More]
Verizon Class Action Settlement: Get Refunds For Accidentally Pressing "Get It Now" Button
By 11.4.11
If Verizon “erroneously” charged you for accidentally pressing the “Get it Now” or “Mobile Web” buttons on your phone, you can file for a refund, thanks to a recent class action settlement. [More]
Consumers Union To Wireless Providers: Don't Wait To Implement "Bill Shock" Alerts
By 11.2.11
A couple weeks ago, details were announced about the Wireless Consumer Usage Notification Guidelines, which give wireless providers one year to roll out a system that lets customers know when they are nearing or over their allotted data, text, voice or international roaming limits. But our cohorts at Consumers Union are urging these companies to not wait until the last minute. [More]
Verizon Promises Deal To Get You To Stay, Then Pretends It Didn't
By 10.12.11
To keep Andrew from jumping ship to Sprint for cheaper service, the retentions team at Verizon Wireless did its job: they offered him an amazing deal. He could get a $20 data credit per month on each of his smartphone lines as part of an unpublicized promotion. Who wouldn’t take that deal? Unfortunately, it turns out that “unpublicized” now means “Verizon pretends that it doesn’t exist.” Andrew’s not the only one who was promised this deal, and he’s going to fight for it. [More]
Verizon Keeps Sending Me Replacement Phones I Didn't Order
By 9.30.11
If you’ve ordered a replacement phone from Verizon recently and it arrived late or not at all, there may be a perfectly confusing explanation. Michael has it. When he ordered a replacement, the transaction went smoothly. Then another phone showed up in his mailbox. And another. He didn’t sell them on eBay, though: he went to some trouble to go to the post office and send them back. He’d appreciate a small token of Verizon’s gratitude for his honesty and his trouble in the form of a small credit on his bill, but they’re not all that grateful. [More]
T-Mobile Exec: Over 1 Million Customers Using Unlocked iPhones On Our Network
By 9.27.11
Right now, U.S. cellphone users can only choose between AT&T and Verizon Wireless if they want to use the iPhone without jailbreaking it to use on another provider’s network. And even though T-Mobile may eventually get the iPhone if AT&T can convince the courts and regulators to let its purchase of T-Mobile USA go through, a number of customers aren’t waiting. [More]
Verizon Admits That Bill Shock Alert System Needs Work
By 9.22.11
Verizon Wireless has a system that’s meant to alert customers if their current voice, data or text usage patterns are likely to push them into having to pay overage charges, but the company admits that it has some reliability issues. [More]
Verizon Takes Away Unlimited Picture And Video Messaging, Point Of $20 Unlimited Prepaid Plan
By 9.21.11
Sam uses a prepaid Verizon plan that includes unlimited messaging and more expensive voice minutes. But that’s okay: “messaging” even includes picture and video messages. What more could the modern mobile phone user ask for? At least, until Verizon changed how the plan works and began charging per recipient of your text messages. [More]
Best Buy Robocalls You To Upgrade Phone You Didn't Get At Best Buy
By 9.2.11
Best Buy is a “valued business partner” of Verizon. That’s why they handed over their customer list to Best Buy so Big Blue could call up Verizon customers eligible for new phones and encourage them to upgrade. At Best Buy, naturally. This happened to Mary, and she wonders whether anyone out there might have assumed that they had to upgrade at Best Buy. [More]
Sprint Tells Employees Not To Discuss iPhone Rumors With Customers, Friends, Family
By 8.29.11
Among the many rumors and reports surrounding the inevitable release of the iPhone 5 is that the device will finally be made available to Sprint customers. With speculation building, Sprint has reportedly issued a memo to staffers instructing them how to respond to customer queries about the iPhone… with a “no comment.” [More]
Verizon Tech Support: Make Your Smartphone Stupider So It'll Work
By 8.25.11
Last fall, David upgraded his Verizon Wireless phone to the Samsung Fascinate, That’s a decently powerful Android smartphone with a decent processor and the ability to run all sorts of online apps. You wouldn’t know that if you were David, though. Even his warranty replacement phone is appears to be having software problems that make it unusable unless he uses it just for phone calls and texts, disabling everything else. That’s what Verizon support has advised him to do. Because that’s what people buy Android smartphones for. [More]
My iPad Has An Evil Twin
By 8.24.11
Kimberly and her Verizon Pad 2 didn’t know it, but her tablet has an evil twin lurking somewhere in the country. It lurked, waiting to steal her iPad’s identity and rob it of its network connectivity. Who created this horrible monster? Er… Verizon Wireless. [More]
Verizon Wireless Employee Closes Sale By Forging My Signature
By 8.22.11
Brandon probably should have known better, but the purchase of a wireless plan upgrade and some smartphones is pretty straightforward. So he thought. He tells Consumerist that when the point-of-sale system said that he should be receiving a paper copy of the contract he was signing, but the salesperson wouldn’t hand it over until he signed. Then the salesperson reached over and “signed” for Brandon. Problem…not exactly solved. [More]
Study: Sprint Smartphone Users Hog The Most Data
By 8.17.11
Ever since AT&T and Verizon did away with unlimited data plans and T-Mobile offered unlimited-but-throttled plans, Sprint has been bragging about both that its unlimited plan has no cap and that its 4G network is quite speedy. And according to the results of a new study, Sprint users are gobbling up much more data than subscribers to any of the other companies. [More]
