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Between the Lines

Larry Dignan, Andrew Nusca and Rachel King

Verizon Wireless CEO throws jabs: Plans to offer Palm Pre (and its 'cousin'); Scoffs at AT&T's network upgrade

By | May 28, 2009, 11:43am PDT

Verizon Wireless CEO Lowell McAdam said Thursday his company hopes to offer the Palm Pre and talked up the carrier’s upcoming phone lineup, which includes the latest BlackBerrys and Android powered phones. Meanwhile, McAdam panned AT&T’s network upgrade.  

McAdam, speaking at a Barclays Capital conference in New York, managed to ding his two biggest rivals—AT&T and Sprint Nextel. But the initial reports of McAdam’s talk don’t capture his bluster. He was running full steam ahead and seemed to relish jabbing at Verizon Wireless’ rivals.

First up was Sprint Nextel, which is betting on the Pre to boost its subscriber growth and reduce churn. McAdam said that Verizon Wireless would aim to sell the Pre on its network. 

In addition, McAdam talked up Verizon Wireless’ upcoming phones. McAdam confirmed that Verizon Wireless would sell the second generation of the BlackBerry Storm and the Tour, a hybrid of Research in Motion’s Bold and Curve models. McAdam said:

“We’re excited about our device pipeline. We’ll offer a steady stream of devices from multiple vendors. Over the next six months or so you’ll see devices like the Palm Pre and a cousin. You’ll see a second generation Storm. You’ll see the Tour as well. You’ll see Motorola back in our portfolio. And yes You’ll see Android devices as well. We’ve had some very good dialogue with Google and will be bringing Android devices in the near future.”

As a Verizon Wireless customer I’m happy to hear that the carrier is stepping up on the device front. McAdam said Verizon Wireless’ plan is to offer a broad portfolio of devices and not rely on “any one hero device” in a reference to the iPhone. 

Meanwhile, McAdam took a shot at AT&T’s network upgrade as too little too late. He said that AT&T’s “ceiling for their network will be the floor for our network.” McAdam called AT&T’s announcement on its network upgrade old news—about a year old. He also noted AT&T’s promises to upgrade speed are spin. 

Speaking about Verizon Wireless’ network, which will be built on LTE and 700Mhz spectrum. “No other carrier will be able to match our speeds. It’s a matter of physics. You can’t spin this,” said McAdam. In many respects, Verizon Wireless is trying to do with 4G what it did with its FiOS fiber optic service: Create a leapfrog.

 

When Verizon Wireless completes its 4G rollout, McAdam said that the company will be the first choice for developers and device makers. 

Among the other key points:

  • “Growth in the future will be measured on number of connections not subscribers,” said McAdam. He argued that multiple touch points to the customer will drive revenue in the future. He touted Verizon Wireless’ LTE rollout as one way to drive those connections between people and machines. 

McAdam illustrated these connections with a health care example.

  • McAdam said Verizon Wireless will continue on post-paid retail customers. The company prefers the economics relative to the pre-paid market. He also pooh-poohed all you can eat data plans. McAdam said other carriers are offering various plans because they’re effectively saying, “We’ll give you all you can eat because we’re going to drop a lot of your calls.”

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Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and SmartPlanet as well as Editorial Director of ZDNet's sister site TechRepublic.

Disclosure

Larry Dignan

Larry Dignan has nothing to disclose. He doesn’t hold investments in the technology companies he covers.

Biography

Larry Dignan

Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and SmartPlanet as well as Editorial Director of ZDNet's sister site TechRepublic. He was most recently Executive Editor of News and Blogs at ZDNet. Prior to that he was executive news editor at eWeek and news editor at Baseline. He also served as the East Coast news editor and finance editor at CNET News.com. Larry has covered the technology and financial services industry since 1995, publishing articles in WallStreetWeek.com, Inter@ctive Week, The New York Times, and Financial Planning magazine. He's a graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism and the University of Delaware.

For daily updates, follow Larry on Twitter.

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And how do you figure Apple needs VZW?
Pete "athynz" Athens 10th Sep 2009
Sure they were the first teleco that Apple approached but even with the reported issues AT&T has done well with taking the risk that VZW was too scared and more to the point to greedy to take.

Apple has sold 30 million iPhones since day 1 - 30 million in 3 to 3 1/2 years... not too shabby for a company that just got into the cellular business oh 3 to 3 1/2 years ago. Tell the class how is it that APPLE needs VZW? It looks to me like VZW NEEDS Apple. I'm sure with proven sales figures and a track record like the iPhone has I'm sure Sprint would be more than happy to be one of the telecos that sells the iPhone... and would be far less likely to cripple the iPhone like VZW would.
My CB is better than yours 'cause the knobs are chrome plated !!!!
1/100th of a watt is 1/100th no matter who your carrier is.
My old 3 watt Motorola "brick" can still give me cancer faster than your 'aye-fone"!
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Seriously..
mg215199 29th May 2009
Your reply to the story had absolutely no relevance to the content at all... please /wrists. Thanks.
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Huh????
tazzarcher 28th Jul 2009
If I understand your metaphor correctly...I am assuming you are trying to say that VZW is simply blowing wind that they are the best of the best and that no matter what ...they are still saying the same thing every other carrier is boasting...NEW STUFF BETTER THAN THEIRS? If so, please try to be a little more focused in your opinion...i.e. CB's are a whole different can of worms. And the cancer comment is very old school... aight? happy

Thanks!
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What is your point?
Pete "athynz" Athens 10th Sep 2009
Well other than to troll anyhow... Let me put in perspective for you you have been weighed, you have been measured, and you have been found wanting. Unless you have something relevant to add troll elsewhere.
I think Verizon remains one of the most arrogant wireless
companies around. Verizon disables features on phones
and blocks users from being able to use built in features
on phones they sell. They dictate to users what they can
and can't do, and they're expensive.

McAdam can try to "spin" reasons for not embracing
unlimited plans. I would expect nothing less from
Verizon, its the same strategy they used with land lines.
How did that work out for your Mr. McAdam? How did it
feel to loose costumers by the boat load to cable
companies?

McAdam claims that AT&T's upgrade is too little too late,
but the same can be said of FIOS. It wasn't until Verizon
had is ass handed to them by the Cable companies that it
took things seriously.

Verizon is going to squeeze every penny it can and provide
the minimal amount of service it can to its 8+ million
subscribers. Verizon my tout they have the best
coverage... but the fact is their best coverage still sucks in
many places. Verizon is simply the best of the worst.

Wireless carriers in this country lag far behind the rest of
the world. But when you listen to them talk you would
think we are the leaders.

I don't buy it Mr. McAdam... can you hear me know?
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You're kidding, right?
mwagner@... 5th Jun 2009
You said ...

"McAdam claims that AT&T's upgrade is too little too late, but the same can be said of FIOS. It wasn't until Verizon had is ass handed to them by the Cable companies that it
took things seriously."

But Verizon has been deploying FIOS in its telco regions for several years. AT&T is only beginning to deploy fiber-to-the-curb in most to most of its markets.

On the cellco side, VZW has had 3G (EvDO) available for several years and had 2.5G (1X) for years before that.

AT&T is still 2G (EDGE) in most markets and 3G in only its largest markets. They are overcommited (too many customers per tower) in many markets making their technology even more susceptible to lost connections.

It doesn't matter what the theoretical limits of your technology are if you don't have the infrastructure to approach those limits.

Granted, VZW is a premium-priced service (especially when it comes to add-ins) but you get what you pay for - and their network reliability and customer service are excellent.
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Remember too, GSM's technical limits
stano360 5th Jun 2009
Remember GSM by its design only allows a limited number of customers per radio, if it fills up you get dropped = customers hating you. With CDMA more customers per radio mean less call quality = customer annoyance, maybe.

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VZW aims for the bottom feeders
brianpeterson@... 29th May 2009
As a 20+ year customer, I can tell you I will switch to ATTwhen LTE comes around, presuming WiMax will stall.

Locking customers into their proprietary and inferior navigation schemes is not a way to win customers.

All one has to do is look at the HTC Touch Pros on Sprint and VZW to see how VZW has undermined good hardware, both physically and with it's bloat ware.

And how is that Open Device Intitiave coming along? Not so well if you look at all the hoops the manufacturers must run through.

To paraphrase General McAuliffe when asked by the Germans to surrender at Bastogne, to you, Mr. McAdam, I say, "Numbnuts!"
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If VZW is so evil ...
mwagner@... 5th Jun 2009
... why have you been a customer for 20+ years? Why would you shoot yourself in the foot by switching to AT&T when LTE will be dramtically faster? And, because LTE will reside in the 700MHz spectrum, reception indoors will be dramtically better as well. AT&T has been playing catch-up in cellular technology for years so why would you expect them to be better post-LTE?
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evil VZ
ni.hao1 5th Jun 2009
They are evil, personified, pure and simple. That said, they also do have the best network. Bummer.
So where's the iphone on Verizon? Time for them to
make an agreement with Apple. Lest they loose me....
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Oh noes!
ChodaBoy 29th May 2009
How will they ever survive if they "loose" you, or even lose you?
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Apple needs VZW more than ...
mwagner@... 5th Jun 2009
... VZW needs Apple. The AT&T network continues to play catch-up with their technology. Apple has wanted a part of the VZW network from day one.
VZW has not been willing to play by Apple's rules. Now Apple is in an exclusive deal with AT&T and is trying to figure out how to get out of it.

Verizon's acquisition of the 700MHz spectrum was a major coup that will serve them well for years!
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Verizon doesn't need Apple
stano360 5th Jun 2009
Remember 90% of everybody wants to make calls with their cell phones. Trust me, I'm a nerd (I'm reading this blog right?), but I'm not willing to pony up for the phone or service. It's been made clear by others that the iPhone is great, but it's worst feature is its phone.
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And how do you figure Apple needs VZW?
Pete "athynz" Athens 10th Sep 2009
Sure they were the first teleco that Apple approached but even with the reported issues AT&T has done well with taking the risk that VZW was too scared and more to the point to greedy to take.

Apple has sold 30 million iPhones since day 1 - 30 million in 3 to 3 1/2 years... not too shabby for a company that just got into the cellular business oh 3 to 3 1/2 years ago. Tell the class how is it that APPLE needs VZW? It looks to me like VZW NEEDS Apple. I'm sure with proven sales figures and a track record like the iPhone has I'm sure Sprint would be more than happy to be one of the telecos that sells the iPhone... and would be far less likely to cripple the iPhone like VZW would.
I left Verizon for the 2nd gen iPhone. I would come back if they had the Pre and it actually does what it appears to do. Verizon has a better network and is a slightly less heavy handed monopolist.
Verizon's "Data Only Plan" is around $45.00 to $50.00 Sprint offers $29.99 Unlimited Data Plan. Perfect for the Deaf.

Verizon has NO DEAF PLAN and, is NOT PLANNING ONE. SAME FOR AT&T.

Great Public Relations, huh?

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CORRECTION
alexgrover1@... 1st Jun 2009
Unlimited data plan on Verizon for a RIM device is $29.99. Someone needs to get their facts straight.
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Unless one needs a BES connection ...
mwagner@... 5th Jun 2009
... bringing the VZW service up to $45. But that's the same with all the carriers. BES is a more expensive service to support.
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Yes but...
condelirios 28th Jul 2009
Sprint's Unlimited Data is EVERYTHING INCLUDED... no bandwidth limit, unlimited SMS, unlimited MMS, GPS NAVIGATION Included...and unlimited. Unlimited Blackberry services, unlimited Sprint TV....unlimited email...

That is not how verizon works.. you get to pay for these pieces separately and then you get charged if you go over the limit on their "unlimited" plan.
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Um with all due respect...they do
JT82 Updated - 28th Jul 2009
they just dont call it that. Under accessible plans, http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/splash/messagingplans.jsp , for $34.99 or $54.99 - depending on type of device, you can get all you can eat texting and data.

Hope this helps.
So they are going to reduce network latency by 2/3rds? Aggregate hardware latency on most networks is negligible nowadays ~10MS. The rest is distance related and not negotiable and unless Steve Jobs is renting out his reality distortion field generator, that simply ain't a happening thing. Macadams is a an engineer, he ought to know better than to claim BS like that. His spin is enough to make an ice skater dizzy.
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... does not sound 'negligible' to me. cut it to four ms and that may very well show up as significant. As for latency due to distance to the tower, at the speed of light, that IS negligible. The change in spectrum to the 700MHz band will be the real difference thanks top better penetration through line-of-sight obstacles.
WiMax on Sprint is going to be faster and available more quickly than LTE for Verizon. They are building it out now and it is already available in Baltimore and most major cities will have it by year end.

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