The Latest Verizon Wireless News

[Poke]

Verizon files for FCC waiver that will allow it to offer Wi-Fi calling

http://www.phonearena.com/news/Veri...-will-allow-it-to-offer-Wi-Fi-calling_id75082

AT&T recently received a waiver from the FCC that allows it to offer Wi-Fi calling even though it can't guarantee TTY transmissions over Wi-Fi. TTY is a service used by the hard of hearing, that allows them to take part in a telephone call through the use of a small QWERTY keyboard and a screen. Because the technology is so old, it does not work well with Wi-Fi. The waiver is required since FCC rules require carriers offering Wi-Fi calling to also offer TTY over Wi-Fi.

 

[Poke]

Verizon and Motorola show off new Droids — live at 11 a.m. ET!

http://www.androidcentral.com/verizon-wireless-droid-event-liveblog

We're coming to you live from NYC this morning, so Verizon and Motorola can unveil their new lineup of Droid-branded Android phones. That's right, it's looking like this will be a multi-phone event and they will almost assuredly both be Verizon-only phones. Are you ready for the Droid Turbo 2 and Droid Maxx 2?

 

[Poke]

Motorola Droid MAXX 2 officially announced, coming Oct. 29 to Verizon

http://www.androidcentral.com/motor...ally-announced-55-inch-screen-and-21mp-camera

Motorola and Verizon Wireless have officially announced the Droid MAXX 2. The 5.5-inch smartphone will have a 21MP rear camera and a 3630 mAh battery that can charge up for up to 8 hours of use in just 15 minutes.

The phone also includes a microSD card slot that will support up to 128GB of extra storage. In addition, it will have customizable backs as well as flip shields, similar to the Moto G. It goes on sale online and at Verizon's retail stores on Thursday, October 29, for $16 a month.

 

[Poke]

Verizon officially introduces the Droid Turbo 2, available October 29

http://www.androidcentral.com/verizon-officially-introduces-droid-turbo-2

At its press event in New York, Verizon and Motorola have officially introduced the Droid Turbo 2 and its shatterproof display. Featuring a 5.4-inch display, Motorola is guaranteeing the screen not to crack or shatter thanks to Moto Shatter Shield. The screen features a dual touch layer with redundancy to survive drops — the interior lens that won't shatter, and the exterior lens to prevent scratches.

 

[Poke]

Verizon Says it Has No Interest in Licensing Dish Spectrum

http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Verizon-Says-it-Has-No-Interest-in-Licensing-Dish-Spectrum-135609

Not only does Verizon have no interest in buying Dish Networks, the company this week stated it had no interest in leasing spectrum from the satellite TV provider, either. Dish's spectrum holdings are increasingly rich as the company pussy foots around whether it will get into the wireless industry, or sell the valuable holdings at a steep premium.
"Why would I go out and buy spectrum and be held hostage by a third party? It makes no sense to do that," Verizon CFO Fran Shammo told attendees of a conference this week.
Analysts had speculated that Verizon would need to lean on Dish's spectrum assets as consumption on the company's LTE network grows. But Shammo noted that the company has been leaning heavily on the deployment of small cells and distributed antenna systems (DAS) in any areas they face modest shortfalls.

As for next year's 600MHz auction, Shammo said that spectrum would be "nice to have but not an absolute priority like AWS-3." Granted Verizon has a bit of a habit of crying spectrum poverty one minute then bragging about its holdings the next, so what the carrier will actually do is anybody's guess.

"We have plenty of runway for capacity purposes," the CFO said. "So I'm not in a situation where I have to be held hostage by anyone to pay anything for spectrum."

 

[Poke]

Verizon subscribers are being offered 2GB of data as a holiday gift; claim it now

http://www.phonearena.com/news/Veri...f-data-as-a-holiday-gift-claim-it-now_id75980

If you are a Verizon customer, Big Red is giving you a gift this holiday season. Log on to your "My Verizon" page and you can graciously accept the offer. Not only will you receive a free GB to use immediately, you also will receive another GB of data for the next billing cycle. If you are bumping up against your data cap, this will give you some breathing room.

The offer is being clocked which means that you have until Tuesday at 11:59PM to click on the link and grab your free data. If you're not able to open the Verizon website at the moment (you could be sitting in the office with your boss keeping his eyes on you), you can set a reminder to go off before the promotion expires.

If you have a few minutes to break away from your desk, you can also use the mobile version of the Verizon website to long into your account and grab the free data. Just don't let the promotion expire without collecting your holiday gift from the nation's largest carrier.
Read more at http://www.phonearena.com/news/Veri...gift-claim-it-now_id75980#5b3DcQqMpvgox5ch.99

 

[Ramy]

I already grabbed it the other day.

 

[Poke]

Verizon Starts Offering Wi-Fi Calling This Week

http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Verizon-Starts-Offering-WiFi-Calling-This-Week-135800

Verizon Wireless says that after several delays the telco will finally start offering Wi-Fi calling this week, albeit on an admittedly puny selection of phones. According to the Verizon press announcement, the Wi-Fi component of Verizon's "Advanced Calling" service will launch this week for both the Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge and will be rolled out as a software update in phases. "Additional Android and iOS devices will receive Wi-Fi Calling capabilities via future software updates expected early next year," states Verizon.

Verizon's the last of the four major carriers to offer the feature, which allows free Wi-Fi calling to US phone numbers (though international calls are billed at regular rates).

"When a customer uses Advanced Calling on our 4G LTE network and travels outside of coverage, the call will seamlessly transfer to a known Wi-Fi hotspot when available," notes the telco.

To activate Wi-Fi Calling on Android, customers must first download and install the latest software update and turn on Advanced Calling from the settings menu.

 

[Poke]

Verizon Shows Interest in Buying Yahoo if Price is Right

http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Verizon-Shows-Interest-in-Buying-Yahoo-if-Price-is-Right-135804

ast week rumors emerged that Yahoo was considering a sale, and AT&T, Verizon and Comcast were all quickly tossed around as potential buyers. Speaking at an industry conference in New York on Monday, Verizon chief financial officer Fran Shammo said that while it's too early to say whether a deal would actually get done, Verizon would buy the company "if Yahoo is right" (read: the price is low).

Verizon has slowly but surely been expanding into the content and advertising business as it backs away from fixed-line broadband service.

What began with some sloppy flirtations with creating its own technology website last year has since blossomed into a much larger venture. The company recently bought AOL for $4.4 billion, and has increasingly been exploring not only a push into content, but new ad technologies.

That has unfortunately included the company's foray into sneaky stealth traffic header manipulation. Such tracking ignores browser privacy settings and tracks users' online behavior using an embedded, unique header in user packets. It took two years for the effort to be uncovered and another six months for Verizon to allow users to opt out.

Most analysts believe Yahoo's aging webmail and portal business isn't worth all that much, so it's entirely possible Verizon could nab the properties at a reasonable price.

 

[Poke]

Verizon pushes out security update for the Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+ and Samsung Galaxy Note 5

http://www.phonearena.com/news/Veri...axy-S6-edge-and-Samsung-Galaxy-Note-5_id76681

Yesterday, we told you that T-Mobile had sent out the monthly security update for the Samsung Galaxy S6, Samsung Galaxy S6 edge, Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+, and the Samsung Galaxy Note 5. Today, it is Verizon's turn to start pushing out the update. The phones involved are the Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+ and the Samsung Galaxy Note 5.

According to Verizon's website, the update makes sure that the most up-to-date security patch is installed on both handsets. The new software version for the Galaxy Note 5 is LMY47X.N920VVRU2OJ3, and LMY47X.G928VVRU2AOJ3 for the Galaxy S6 edge+. Before you start the updating process, Verizon says that you should connect to a Wi-Fi network, or make sure you are receiving a strong signal from the carrier. We usually suggest using Wi-Fi, just to make sure that you are not burning any data during the update.
The security update is being sent out OTA, on a staggered basis. That means that you might not receive it for a few days. You can try to pull the update out of your phone by go to Menu > Settings > About phone > Software updates > Check for Updates. The update will take 6-10 minutes to download, and another 6-10 minutes to install.

 

[Poke]

Verizon will pay up to $650 to cover your switching costs

http://www.androidcentral.com/verizon-will-pay-650-cover-your-switching-costs-another-carrier

Verizon is now offering up to $650 per line to those who are looking to make the switch to its network. We've seen other carriers offer to pay your switching costs, and now those looking to jump to Verizon's network can do so without a huge financial impact. Whether you are in the middle of a contract or making monthly device payments, Verizon will pay up to $650 per line of service that you bring to them.

The payments come in the form of a pre-paid gift card, so Verizon won't just be handing you cash or paying your old carrier directly. You will be able to use the gift cards to pay off your old balances, as long as your previous carrier is willing to wait the 6 to 8 weeks it takes for you to get the gift card.

 

[Poke]

Verizon has AOL chief Tim Armstrong looking into a Yahoo acquisition

http://www.theverge.com/2016/2/8/10939526/verizon-yahoo-acquisition-aol-tim-armstrong

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Verizon appears closer to scooping up Yahoo, a move that would place an even larger slice of the internet under the internet provider's umbrella. Tim Armstrong, CEO of Verizon subsidiary AOL, is now in charge of a potential acquisition of the old tech giant's assets, according to a report from Bloomberg today. There haven't been any discussions between the two companies, and Verizon hasn't yet involved bankers to help craft an offer, the report adds. Yet the involvement of Armstrong, who was instrumental in AOL's acquisitions of The Huffington Post and TechCrunch, indicates a more serious effort to buy Yahoo may be underway.

The move would mirror Verizon's $4.4 billion acquisition of AOL last year, and it's part of a larger effort from the carrier to own more of the content it delivers to more than 112 million phone subscribers in the US — and advertises against in the process. Yahoo brings in more than 1 billion visitors to its homepage, video sites, sports and finance portals, and email service. That traffic, together with Yahoo's Brightroll ad platform, gives Verizon a enormous pool of content it has direct control over and can monetize with mobile video ads, a territory dominated by YouTube and Facebook at the moment.


A Yahoo acquisition also gives Verizon a way to promote more of its own content over competitors', as it did recently by exempting its mobile video app Go90 from its customers' data caps. The FCC is looking into whether zero-rating violates net neutrality principles, but telecom companies like Verizon and T-Mobile are aggressively exploiting the loophole anyway.

Verizon executives have hinted at a Yahoo acquisition in the past. Back in December, Verizon CFO Fran Shammo said a Yahoo deal could go through if it "makes sense for our shareholders and we can return value." Shammo added, however, that it was far too premature to publicly discuss a Yahoo deal. Armstrong is a likely candidate to lead the offer, having helped spearhead the $250 million acquisition of ad tech company Millennial Media in October and having worked alongside Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer in the early days of Google. Yahoo is currently spinning off its core internet business as a way to better position its valuable stake in e-commerce site Alibaba, meaning Yahoo can entertain offers from Verizon and others.

 

[Poke]

Marshmallow update coming to T-Mobile HTC One M9 on Feb. 16 [Update: Verizon, too!]

http://www.androidcentral.com/marshmallow-update-coming-t-mobile-htc-one-m9-feb-16

If you're using an HTC One M9 on T-Mobile, your wait for Android 6.0 Marshmallow is almost over. HTC's Mo Versi has confirmed that the update will start rolling out on Tuesday, February 16.

Happy Friday! Good news for T-Mobile HTC One (M9) owners! We've received technical approval on Marshmallow, with the OTA to start on 2/16.

— Mo Versi (@moversi) February 12, 2016
HTC originally rolled out the Marshmallow update to the unlocked HTC One M9 back in December, and it started landing for carrier variants in January. T-Mobile will be the second carrier in the U.S. to get the update, coming just behind Sprint, which began it's rollout earlier in February.

Update: In a follow-up Twitter post, Versi has confirmed that the update for Verizon's HTC One M9 has received approval as well; it will begin rolling out on the same day.

Source: Mo Versi (Twitter)

 

[Poke]

HTC One M9 also receives its sweet Marshmallow update from Verizon

http://www.androidcentral.com/htc-one-m9-also-receives-its-sweet-marshmallow-update-verizon

As well as updating both the LG G3 and G4, Verizon has also started rolling out Android 6.0Marshmallow for the HTC One M9. As previously reported, February 16 is when both Verizon and T-Mobile were expected to roll out the major release. Should you be holding out for that anticipated update notification, it shouldn't be long until it hits your Verizon One M9.

This move comes after HTC originally rolled out Android 6.0 to unlocked versions of the One M9 back in December, following on from Sprint who started rolling Marshmallow out earlier this month. If you haven't yet received the notification, be sure to manually check by heading to the Settings > System Updates > HTC software update > Check Now.

 

[Poke]

Verizon is now rolling out Marshmallow to both the LG G3 and G4

http://www.androidcentral.com/verizon-now-rolling-out-marshmallow-both-lg-g3-and-g4

Those of you with either the LG G4 or its predecessor, the LG G3, on Verizon – and who are patiently awaiting the arrival of Android 6.0 Marshmallow – will be relieved to learn that the U.S. carrier has commenced the roll out. You should receive the notification to update your smartphone shortly.

If you haven't yet received the update alert, be sure to give it a number of hours to fully propagate through the system. You can always perform a manual update check by heading into Settings, About phone and check for update.

• You can learn more about the updates hitting both smartphones by heading to the respective support pages on Verizon's website (linked below).

Source: Verizon (G3), (G4)

 

[Bronxiniowa]

Sigh. Get with the program, Samsung!

 

[Poke]

Verizon 5G Will Deliver Gigabit Speeds, Ultra-Low Latency

http://www.dslreports.com/shownews/Verizon-5G-Will-Deliver-Gigabit-Speeds-UltraLow-Latency-136341

Verizon says its ultra-fast 5G wireless broadband trials are formally underway. According to a company announcement, Verizon's working with Ericsson, Intel, Nokia, Samsung and Qualcomm on tests that "mimic real world scenarios" using millimeter wave bands, including bands in the FCC’s Notice for Proposed Rulemaking for 5G spectrum. Verizon has previously promised that its implementation of 5G will hit 1 Gbps, with some variation of the technology released in 2017.


Most individuals and companies think Verizon's being a bit premature, since nobody technically knows what 5G even is yet. T-Mobile went so far as to call Verizon's efforts "BS" last week.


For its part, Verizon states that while 5G doesn't exist, Verizon's testing most of the technologies that will likely make up the standard. That will include new variations on millimeter wave antennas, beamforming, beam tracking, massive MIMO (multiple input, multiple output), and wideband spectrum (200 MHz – 1 GHz swaths).

“We plan to expand this testing significantly over the next several months. With innovation occurring so rapidly, we want to quickly make some key technical decisions and move rapidly to pre-commercial form factors and testing later this year,” said Verizon's Adam Koeppe, Vice President Network Technology Planning. “We are also collaborating closely with our peer operators in the Asian markets as we are very much aligned towards implementing 5G technology in 2017.”

The end result of Verizon's experimentation with 5G will be multi-gigabit wireless speeds with single digit latency, promises the company.

 

[Ramy]

Yeah but without an unlimited data package, all these speeds will be useless if you use all your data in one day.

 

[mdram]

or minutes at those speeds

 

[Ramy]

or minutes at those speeds

Well yeah, theoretically it could happen in a few seconds.