Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless

It’s taken more than a year, but Verizon has just officially announced that it has completed its purchase of Rural Cellular, which you may also know by its business name, Unicel. This latest announcement follows a conditional approval from the FCC earlier this week, which required one of the two companies to sell licenses in six markets in order to “improve competition” — a compromise Verizon seems to have been more than willing to accept. All told, Verizon will be forking over $2.66 billion in cash and assumed debt for the company, which will increase its customer base by more than 625,000, and expand its coverage area by 4.7 million people, including markets in Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Alabama, Mississippi, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Idaho, Washington and Oregon.

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Filed under: Cellphones

We’d heard that the latest incarnation of the Chocolate series from LG on Verizon would be launching next Monday, but we’ve got some great news to close out the week, fans: you’ll be able to plunk down your cash a full day early. It turns out that the Chocolate 3 will actually be launching this Sunday, July 13 for the expected $129.99 after rebate, featuring a 2 megapixel cam, GPS, 3.5mm headphone jack, and an in-your-face set of external music controls, all in your choice of black or light blue. Just add an 8GB microSD card and the Rhapsody tie-in, and you’ve got yourself a little musical powerhouse here.

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Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

It looks like Motorola and Verizon are getting ready to take a third crack at the Q9 form factor, following up the Q9m and Q9c — and this time around, there’s a little something extra in store. On top of the EV-DO Rev. A radio, the so-called “Napoleon” (codename, of course) features GSM, because — surprise, surprise — businesspeople who use Windows Mobile devices tend to do just a bit of traveling. It looks like Moto has taken this opportunity to give the Q9 meme a little nip-tuck job, too, with a rounded body and a tastefully-applied ring of chrome around the top edge. They’ve even tossed in a fingerprint scanner for good measure, a tip o’ the hat to the suits who’ll undoubtedly populate the upper 90 percent of this sucker’s client base. No word on a release date or price, but can we cautiously submit a thumbs-up for the design direction here?

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Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Remember that touchscreen Motorola Blaze we’d mentioned a while back that was on the hook to get Verizon’s visual voicemail service? It may not be in Verizon stores yet, but it’s all up in Boy Genius Report’s labs with a dark red body, MING attitude, and almost limitless mediocrity on board. The touchscreen apparently requires ridiculous amounts of effort to actuate, and that problem is compounded by a lame on-screen keyboard that makes texting tricky at best. EV-DO Rev. A is cool and all — and the visual voicemail support should be a pretty popular add-on feature — but that giant Motorola logo up front with the red ring and three pounds of chrome leaves the Blaze with a face only a mother could love. Let’s hope Verizon’s positioning this one as its low-end touchscreen offering, because we’re not seeing it cha-chinging many registers otherwise.

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Filed under: Cellphones

Unless you’ve been camped out under a Rhode Island-sized boulder for the past few weeks, you know that Verizon has announced its intentions to acquire Alltel. During a recent interview with CEO Scott Ford, Talk Business host Roby Brock was able to get a few talking points out of the exec that didn’t involve the most recent transaction. More specifically, Mr. Ford noted that prior to Alltel becoming a private company, it had “tried to buy Sprint three times, tried to buy AT&T Wireless [and] tried to buy T-Mobile.” He continued by saying that “some of those times it went with partners, [while] some of those times it didn’t.” Essentially, Alltel was “doing everything it could to get to a national platform.” Believe it or not, those quotes really are just the tip of the iceberg, but the full spill is entirely too detailed for this space. If you’re curious to know what might have been, break out the reading glasses and hit the link below.

[Via mocoNews]

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Filed under: Cellphones

Nokia’s got a new no-frills handset coming to Verizon on June 15th, the Nokia 6205. Specs like a 1.3 megapixel camera, 58MB of memory and the Verizon UI — no thank you — won’t have us in a hurry to turn in our N95, but the real news here is that the phone was designed by Nokia itself, and they’re promising even more phones for Verizon in the future — though S60 might not be in the cards. The 6205 has a 2-inch 176 x 220 screen on the inside, and a 1.28-inch 128 x 128 LCD on the back, there’s a microSD slot, plenty of audio codec support, Bluetooth and a paltry 4 hours of talk time due to the EV-DO connection this thing wastes on a WAP 2.0 browser. It comes in the standard blue version, available in July, or you can pick up “The Dark Knight” edition we heard about (pictured), complete with movie-based ringtones and a pre-loaded trailer, on June 15th. Both will retail for $119 with contract.

In need of some hands-on of this phone? That’s weird. Check it out at Engadget Mobile.

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Filed under: Cellphones

If you’ve been on the edge of your seat waiting for a new Palm phone on Verizon — today your dreams come true. Truck on over to Engadget Mobile and see thrilling shots of the new Centro in unboxing and hands-on action. You won’t be disappointed, unless you don’t like the Palm Centro. Then you will be disappointed.

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Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Come on, T-Mobile, all we need is you to get on board now and that’ll make a perfect Yahtzee! for Palm with its surprise hit, the Centro. Thanks to Verizon’s expected announcement today, the top three US carriers now carry the diminutive Garnet device, which Palm actually says is “off to the strongest start of any smartphone in Palm’s history” — quite a statement, considering the Treo line’s rich tradition. After the full, delicious menu of rebates and discounts have been applied, Verizon’s version will run the same $99 on contract that the boys and girls on Sprint and AT&T pay, and we can look for it to be available through all retail channels starting tomorrow.

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Filed under: Cellphones

Sit back, relax, grab the popcorn, and check this out, because there’s this really awesome battle going on between LG and Samsung for the hearts and minds of the touchscreen-loving public on Sprint and Verizon right now (and AT&T, too, if you count the LG Vu). The Glyde and Voyager are fighting the good fight as we speak, while the Instinct will be tagging in shortly — and right behind it will be this puppy, the VX9700 Dare from LG, which is just now getting some of its first shots out in the environs. Like Sprint’s Instinct, the Dare goes QWERTY keyboard-free in favor of a virtual pad; specs include a 3.2 megapixel camera, 3.5mm headphone jack, microSDHC support, and a wide QVGA display. Rumors have it landing in July, at which point we can drop the chain-link octagon cage and let it go toe-to-toe with the Instinct for dominance. Remember, guys, no biting or hair pulling, and may the best fashionable Korean touchphone win.

[Via phoneArena]

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Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

The Samsung Glyde was one of the most hyped phones on an American carrier in recent memory leading up to its launch, and there’s one small problem with that: it’s hard to live up to the fanfare, no matter how good (or bad) the phone might be. A common early complaint coming out of the gate seems to be the lack of support for Verizon’s MediaFLO-based VCAST TV service, a service that the Glyde’s main competition, the Voyager, supports. The UI’s also getting panned for being a little more confusing that it needs to be; compounding matters is the fact that Phone Scoop describes it as a “push UI” on account of a fiddly touchscreen. For what it’s worth, it seems that the keyboard is at least quite good — so if you can put up with the negatives, the Glyde might still have a place in your pocket. Otherwise, the Voyager’s still looking awfully good, isn’t it?

Read - LAPTOP Magazine (2.5 / 5 stars, “…limited by a poor UI and unreliable performance”)
Read - Phone Scoop (”The Glyde pairs a few of the best things from the physical and touch worlds”)
Read - PHONE Magazine (”The Verizon Glyde isn’t a bad cellphone, but it’s outshone by its rivals”)

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Filed under: Cellphones

One of the worst-kept secrets in Verizon’s stable is finally getting official today; that’s right, ladies and gentlemen, meet the Glyde from Samsung. Wearing CDMA guts underneath its F700 clothing, the fashion-friendly QWERTY slider offers a 2 megapixel cam with flash and autofocus, GPS, the full range of Bluetooth profiles, microSD slot, and a true HTML browser. Unlike its crosstown competition — the LG Voyager — the Glyde doesn’t offer support for Verizon’s VCAST TV service, but we imagine most folks will consider that a minor (read: nonexistent) inconvenience. Look for the phone to start circulating into retail channels this week for a princely $249.99 on contract after $50 rebate. Have a quick gander over on Engadget Mobile for a few shots of the Glyde doing what the Glyde does best — posing for press photography, that is.

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Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

Remember when we caught wind that Verizon was prepping a worldband version Samsung’s i760 Windows Mobile piece? That rumor’s suddenly gained a lot more credence now that we’ve seen a so-called SCH-i770 pass through the FCC’s hallowed halls, especially considering the device outline’s uncanny resemblance to that of the aforementioned i760. We’d previously heard that there might be some HSDPA on board, and while we’re not seeing any evidence of that from the FCC’s test reports, we can confirm that it’ll feature EV-DO, WiFi, and Bluetooth in addition to all the GSM you’ll need to get by while roaming through mysterious foreign lands. No word on when we might actually see an announcement about this one, but we imagine Verizon doesn’t want to wait that much longer — the i760 design isn’t getting any younger, y’know.

[Via Phone Scoop]

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Verizon just announced its plans for the open-access “C block” and other chunks of the 700MHz spectrum it purchased from the FCC for almost $10B. As expected, it’s going to provide high speed, 4G services in the form of LTE in the newly acquired spectrum. Of course, the 2010 launch is the same target stated by AT&T. Verizon also claims to have increased its spectrum inventory by about 60%. Before and after auction coverage shots in the gallery below.

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Filed under: Wireless

If it wasn’t clear going into the auction, it’s pretty much obvious now that the dust has settled: Google wasn’t in the 700MHz Block C auction to win it — though it was certainly ready to pony up the cash in the event of a win. It was conjectured that Google was driving the bidding early on, in an effort to get hit that magical 4.6 billion reserve price that would require the winner to allow open access of devices and applications to the resulting network, and now Google has confirmed that it was pretty much a Google show in the early days of the auction. Apparently ten of the bidding rounds involved Google raising its own bid, “but it was clear, then and now, that Verizon Wireless ultimately was motivated to bid higher,” reads the Google Public Policy Blog. It’s worth noting that Google claims it would’ve nabbed the C Block license “at a price somewhat higher than the reserve price,” but building out a network and becoming a major player in next-gen wireless internet would certainly be a large departure for the company, and we’re sure there’s a bit of relief over in Mountain View, CA at the moment.

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Filed under: Wireless

No surprises here, but boy is that going to be a difficult expense to justify on the ol’ corporate card. AT&T says it’ll pay a $1.3 billion down payment to the FCC within the next 10 days to get a lock on that spectrum it just won, $500 million of which was paid up front before the auction began. The company will be pushing the remaining $5.3 billion over the counter before April 17, and is financing the purchase with funds from operations and a good bit of debt. We haven’t seen a similar filing from Verizon yet, but we’re guessing the company is facing similar deadlines for its $9.36 billion of spectrum.

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Filed under: Features, Wireless

Win or lose, all the bidders wrapped up in the so-called Auction 73 for precious spectrum in the 700MHz band are still under tight FCC-imposed gag orders in an effort to stem any funny business, but it looks like they’re at least ready to come out and dip their toes into the PR waters. Verizon, the biggest winner having claimed the big, wide Block C prize, says that it’s “pleased with [its] auction results” (we should certainly hope so), that the new airwaves will help it maintain its “reputation as the nation’s most reliable wireless network,” and that they’re now better positioned to lead the way with new services and devices. The megacarrier goes on to boast about the fact that its winning bids score it massive 298 million person footprint, plus another 171 million worth of licenses in different Blocks.

Meanwhile, AT&T seems happy with its purchase, too — but then again, it’s not like any of these companies would be issuing immediate statements expressing buyer’s remorse, we guess. The number one US carrier by subscribers reports that its newly acquired licenses, in combination with spectrum snatched from Aloha Partners earlier this year, now gives it 100 percent coverage in the 700MHz arena in the nation’s top 200 markets, with “quality spectrum” (whatever that means) covering 95 percent of the American populace. For what it’s worth, AT&T’s Auction 73 purchases were in Block B, which has moderately less bandwidth than Verizon’s Block C win — but as they say, it’s not the bandwidth of the spectrum, it’s the motion of the frequencies, so we’ll have to wait to see how these guys actually use these licenses before we rush to any conclusions.

Finally, from its brief statement, Google appears to have gotten exactly what it wanted: nothing at all. The company says that Auction 73 “produced a major victory for American consumers” because Block C’s reserve price was met — thanks largely to Google’s early bidding, it’s believed — which means that Verizon will be obligated to allow devices of all shapes, sizes, colors, and brands to participate when it flips the switch on its 700MHz network.

All three companies sound like they’re itching to say more as soon as the FCC allows it, so stay tuned as we try to figure out exactly what’s next for the auction, the carriers, and the people who actually want to benefit from this action (read: us).

Read - AT&T’s statement
Read - Verizon Wireless’ statement
Read - Google’s statement

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Filed under: Wireless

digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/tech_news/700MHz_auction_details_Verizon_AT_T_big_winners’; After yesterday’s wrap-up of the gargantuan Auction 73 to offload the newly-freed 700MHz spectrum, it looks like the two champions to emerge are Verizon and AT&T. Big Red has emerged with virtually all of the highly coveted C Block save for Alaska, Puerto Rico, and the Gulf of Mexico, a logical move considering its recent foray into the wide world of open access. AT&T, meanwhile, has scored much of the B Block, giving it 12MHz of spectrum in many of over 700 “cellular market areas” nationwide. In total, Verizon laid out a whopping $4,741,807,000 to pick up the Block C airwaves, leaving early competitor Google in the dust — and affirming rumors that Mountain View wasn’t in it to win it, it just wanted to make sure the reserve price was met and open access rules were assured.

Other winners include Qualcomm, which won bits and pieces of the B and E Blocks — more MediaFLO spectrum, perhaps? — and Frontier Wireless, scoring the overwhelming majority of the low-bandwidth E Block. Frontier is in cahoots with Echostar, though it’s not clear how (or if) the new spectrum would augment its satellite TV service.

Left out in the cold was the D Block, a wireless range which the FCC had required to be used in partnership with public safety groups; it failed to meet its minimum reserve price of $1.33 billion, which means that a new Auction 76 will be automatically spawned for bidders to have another go at it. Follow the break for the big winners, broken down by block.

Continue reading FCC releases 700MHz auction details, Verizon, AT&T big winners

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Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless

We still don’t know what happened in the 700MHz auction, but Verizon’s going full steam ahead with its open-network policy, holding a press conference today to detail the “Any Apps, Any Device” plan announced back in November. Things should get rolling retail-style by the second half of the year, and it looks like all hardware manufacturers have to do is get their devices certified by Verizon, which characterized the technical requirements as being only slightly stricter than industry standards — the goal is to allow access to the network without causing problems, but other than that there aren’t any UI rules or anything like that. Peace out, BREW. Only FCC-approved devices will be taken in for testing, and there’s a fee for certification, but in return manufacturers are promised a four-week turnaround (eight weeks for the “best practices” cert), with mandatory re-testing every 36 months. As far as apps go, it’s a free for all — customers can do as they wish. Verizon said that the open policy will still be in force when LTE rolls out — the big push into EV-DO was a winning bet, so it’s going to try and be aggressive with 4G as well. The best part? A new flat-rate, multi-device service plan is being considered that would allow all your mobile devices to connect for the price of a single subscription. All in all, a surprising set of announcements for Big Red — in one fell swoop, it’s gone from the most locked-down carrier being at least on par with the GSM networks, and potentially even more flexible if these pricing plans actually pan out. Hmmm, is that a mad rush of Android devs we hear?

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Filed under: Cellphones

We’ve seen more efficient ways of piping tunes from phones to stereos, but admittedly, they usually involve a wire or two. The Venturi Mini, now being offered by Verizon Wireless, performs the wondrous feat of receiving music streamed to it via stereo Bluetooth and relaying it on to your car’s head unit by way of FM transmitter, making the whole process completely wire-free. “But wait,” as they say in the industry, “that’s not all.” The cigarette lighter socket-powered device doubles as a handsfree that cleverly pauses your music when the time comes to take a call. Grab the multitalented wonder now for $129.99 — and if you live in Washington or Oregon, the sooner, the better.

[Via MobileBurn]

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Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds

A poster over on HowardForums has a series of convincing shots of a little something we’d like to call “Sprint’s Worst Nightmare.” Okay, that’s going way too far, but if this Verizon-branded HTC Touch is legit, Sprint has to be just a little bummed that it’s about to lose US exclusivity on the fancy little Windows Mobile piece. If it’s simply the same Sprint hardware we know and love repackaged in white, we can expect EV-DO, microSD expansion, Windows Mobile 6 Professional dressed up to be about as finger-friendly as it possibly can be, and a 2 megapixel camera. Thing is, the poster says that this one’s “a little thinner” than Sprint’s — amazing if true, considering that it’s already a svelte and manageable 0.6 inches — so all bets on specs are off until we get some official confirmation. Word on the street is that we’ll see it in March.

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