Verizon Wireless

Verizon Wireless (often branded and referred to simply as Verizon), is a wholly owned subsidiary of Verizon Communications. As of December 2014, Verizon Wireless provided wireless services to 131.9 million subscribers. It is the largest wireless telecommunications provider in the United States.

Headquartered in Basking Ridge, New Jersey, the company was originally a joint venture of American telecommunications firm Bell Atlantic, which would soon become Verizon Communications, and global British telecommunications company Vodafone.

Verizon Wireless' slogan is "Never Settle", a slogan that is also used in other Verizon assets.

History

On April 3, 2000, Verizon Communications began operations as the result of the merger between Bell Atlantic and GTE. Before that, however, in September 1999, UK-based Vodafone AirTouch Plc. had announced a $90-billion joint venture with Bell Atlantic to establish a wireless service provider. The venture received regulatory approval in six months, and began operations as Verizon Wireless on April 4, 2000. Verizon Communications owned 55%, and UK-based Vodafone Group (formerly Vodafone AirTouch) owned 45%. It consisted of the two companies' U.S. wireless assets: Bell Atlantic Mobile and AirTouch Paging. On June 30, with the addition of GTE Wireless' assets, in connection with the formation of Verizon Communications, made Verizon Wireless the largest mobile network operator in the United States. It held that position until Cingular's acquisition of AT&T Wireless in 2004, and again after their acquisition of Alltel in 2009.

At the end of 2006, Verizon Wireless acquired West Virginia Wireless, a regional GSM cell phone company. On July 30, 2007, Rural Cellular Corporation (Unicel) announced it agreed to be acquired by Verizon Wireless. Verizon said that it planned to convert RCC's GSM customers to CDMA-based cellular technology, but would continue to operate RCC's current GSM network in order to generate roaming revenue. On August 1, 2008, the FCC voted to approve the deal. Per the Department of Justice, Verizon will divest certain properties in New York, Vermont, and Washington in order to complete the acquisition. In mid-2007, Ramcell of Oregon made a deal to sell its assets to Verizon Wireless. Integration of local company to increase coverage area in Southern Oregon began in late 2010. On January 22, 2008 SureWest Communications announced that it had entered into a definitive agreement to sell the operating assets of its Wireless business to Verizon Wireless. On June 5, 2008, Verizon Wireless announced that it had entered into an agreement to acquire Alltel for $5.9Â billion, plus the assumption of debt, in a deal that would create the biggest mobile phone company in the U.S. surpassing AT&T. Based on Alltel's projected net debt at closing of $22.2Â billion, the aggregate value of the deal was $28.1Â billion. The FCC approved Verizon's purchase of Alltel Wireless by a vote of 5â€"0 on November 4, 2008. The FTC approved of the acquisition on December 10, 2008. On January 9, this deal was finalized, making Verizon Wireless the largest carrier in the country. November 2008, Verizon Wireless purchased 2 markets in Kentucky formerly belonging to Dobson Communications from AT&T. This purchase closed the I75 corridor from Lexington, KY to Tennessee in which Verizon was lacking service. It also added about 40,000 customers to the Verizon wireless network.

On May 8, 2009, AT&T announced an agreement to sell five Centennial Wireless service areas in Louisiana and Mississippi to Verizon Wireless, pending upon FCC approval of AT&T's acquisition of Centennial. Also on May 8, 2009 AT&T announced a definitive agreement to acquire wireless assets from Verizon Wireless for $5.35Â billion in cash. Under terms of the agreement, AT&T will acquire wireless properties, including licenses, network assets and 1.5Â million current subscribers in 79 service areas, primarily in rural areas across 18 states. Verizon Wireless is required to divest these properties as part of the regulatory approvals granted for its purchase of Alltel earlier this year. The states represented are: Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia and Wyoming. On February 17, 2012, Verizon announced the purchase of Southeastern New Mexico wireless markets belonging to Plateau Wireless. The purchase will expand Verizon Wireless' brand and network footprint in southeastern New Mexico to the counties of Eddy, Chaves, Lea and a portion of Lincoln that it doesn't already serve with its own native network.

In June 2013, it was revealed, through a leaked secret court document and subsequent commentary from elected officials, that for the previous seven years the NSA had required Verizon to provide all metadata relating to the phone calls of its customers. This practice continues.

On September 2, 2013, Verizon Communications announced that it would buy out Vodafone's 45% stake in Verizon Wireless in a deal valued at $130 billion. Under the terms of the deal, Vodafone would get $58.9 billion in cash, $60.2 billion in Verizon stock, and an additional $11 billion from smaller transactions. The sale closed on February 21, 2014.

On April 21, 2014, Verizon Wireless announced that it plans to acquire California RSA #3 Limited Partnership, which operated Golden State Cellular, pending FCC approval. Verizon would transfer Golden State Cellular's existing CDMA coverage to native Verizon coverage, and move Golden State Cellular's roughly 18,000 subscribers to Verizon within 15 months of the deal closing. The deal closed on June 21, 2014.

Network

Verizon Wireless is one of two major U.S. carriers that use CDMA2000 (Code Division Multiple Access), the other being Sprint Corporation. Alltel also used CDMA2000 before mostly becoming part of Verizon Wireless (with part divested to AT&T Mobility). Other regional carriers that use CDMA2000 are: U.S. Cellular, Cricket, and MetroPCS, the latter of which now uses GSM and HSPA+ on T-Mobile's network since being purchased by that company (see the list of United States mobile phone companies for more information), while Cricket is also transitioning to GSM/HSPA as part of being absorbed by AT&T. Verizon supports three generations of CDMA-based cellular network technologies (IS-95 for 2G voice & data, 1xRTT for 2.5G voice & data, and EV-DO for 3G data) in addition to LTE for 4G voice and broadband data. LTE connectivity was opened on Sunday 5 December 2010 in 38 cities. At that time, 4G service was only offered as a mobile broadband data option. 4G-compatible Verizon mobile phones were released in the first quarter of 2011.

Verizon Wireless offers voice services, as well as 3G data services such as wireless broadband based on EV-DO Rev A, text and picture messaging, over-the-air downloadable applications and content from its "Media Center" service (previously called Get It Now, or "GIN" in user forums), video on demand in the form of V CAST (which allows customers to download and view video content), location-based services, and push-to-talk (PTT).

In areas where Verizon has no native coverage, such as parts of Maryland, West Virginia, Oklahoma, Maine, Montana, and Puerto Rico, Verizon roams onto other regional CDMA and LTE networks (if the carrier is part of the LTE in Rural America program) through carriers such as U.S. Cellular, Pioneer Cellular, and other partner carriers. Verizon refers to these networks as "Extended", and customers can use their devices as they would in Verizon's native coverage area, with some Verizon services being unavailable.

On June 30, 2007, Verizon Wireless completed the overhaul of the entire EV-DO network to EV-DO Rev. A. This enables PC Cards and certain phones to obtain theoretical peak download speeds of 3.1 Mbit/s and upload speeds of up to 1.8 Mbit/s. The actual download and upload speeds vary due to a number of factors, and users will typically see speeds close to 1 Mbit/s down, and 500 kbit/s up.

On November 27, 2007, Verizon Wireless announced plans to allow all cell phones compatible with their CDMA-based cellular network technology to run on their network. Users of such phones are also allowed to use any application they wish.

However, on September 20, 2007, Verizon Wireless announced a joint effort with the Vodafone Group to transition their networks to the 4G standard LTE and on November 29, 2007, Verizon Wireless announced that they would start LTE trials in 2008. On December 9, 2008, Verizon announced that they intend to build and begin to roll out an LTE network, by the beginning of 2011. Adopting LTE would make for a gradual shift away from Verizon Wirelessâ€™ current use of CDMA-based cellular network technology and offer increased operability for users traveling worldwide.

On January 25, 2009, Verizon Wireless released its first femtocell called the Verizon Wireless Network Extender.

Verizon operates "America's Largest and Most Reliable Wireless Network," covering approximately 300 million people.

On December 5, 2010 Verizon Wireless launched its "4G LTE" (Long Term Evolution) network. In an announcement made on January 6, 2011, from the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Verizon Wireless stated in the first half of 2011 they will release: 10 new LTE devices including, five smartphones, two tablets, two netbooks, and two MiFi hotspots. According to OpenSignal average download speeds on Verizon LTE in June 2013 were 19.9Mbit/s.

On August 21, 2012, the FCC approved Verizon's $3.6 billion purchase of cellular frequencies from cable companies Comcast, Time Warner, Cox and Bright House.

In 2013, Verizon entered the Alaska market with the first LTE-only cellular network in the country. Like the earlier LTE network in the "lower 48" U.S. states, it was data-only at first. In September 2014, it began offering "advanced calling" service (also called "HD Voice" in the industry) via voice over LTE within its own footprint, and regular calling via roaming on other carriers.

Radio frequency summary

The following is a list of known 3G and LTE frequencies which Verizon employs in the United States:

Awards

2004

Best Wireless Product â€" Wireless Systems Design, February 11, 2004
Highest Customer Service Quality Rating â€" RCR Wireless News, January 21, 2004
Carrier of the Year â€" Wireless Week, March 22, 2004
Best Place to Work in IT â€" ComputerWorld, June 14, 2004
Best Overall Carrier â€" Laptop Magazine, May 2004
100 Best Companies for Working Mothers â€" Working Mother, October 2004
Reader's Choice â€" PC Magazine, November 29, 2004

2005

Gold Well Workplace â€" The Wellness Councils of America, September 2005
Top 125 Training Organizations in America â€" Training Magazine
100 Best Companies for Working Mothers â€" Working Mother

2006

Carrier of the Year â€" Wireless Week, April 1, 2006
Best Place to Work in IT â€" Computerworld, June 19, 2006
Tops For Diversity â€" DiversityBusiness.com, March 30, 2006
Training Top 100 â€" Training Magazine, March 2006
Best Wireless Service Provider in the World â€" Business Traveler, December 4, 2006
100 Best Companies for Working Mothers â€" Working Mother, September 2006
Most Reliable and Responsive Web Site â€" The Keynote Service Level Rankings Study, September 14, 2006
Highest Ranked Wireless Customer Service Performance (in a Tie) â€" J.D. Power and Associates, July 26, 2006
Top Honors For Online Customer Experience â€" The Customer Respect Group, July 21, 2006
Highest in Customer Satisfaction With Business Wireless Service â€" J.D. Power and Associates, May 17, 2006
Leading in Customer Satisfaction â€" ACSI, May 16, 2006
Highest Overall Satisfaction Among Wireless Telephone Users in Mid-Atlantic, West, Northeast, Southeast and North Central Region (all in a Tie) â€" J.D. Power and Associates, April 18, 2006
1st in Diversity â€" DiversityInc, April 19, 2006
Highest Call Quality Performance Among Wireless Cell Phone Users in Northeast Region in a Tie, Mid-Atlantic Region and Southeast Region â€" J.D. Power and Associates, March 16, 2006

2007

Carrier of the Year â€" Wireless Week, April 1, 2007
Tops in Customer Satisfaction â€" Vocal Laboratories, October 23, 2007
25 Companies That Are Good for the World and Your Wallet â€" CareerBuilder.com, September 24, 2007
100 Best Company for Working Mothers â€" Working Mother, September 2007
Health & Wellness Trailblazer â€" Alliance for Workplace Excellence, June 26, 2007
Best Place To Work in IT â€" Computerworld, June 19, 2007
Leading in Customer Satisfaction â€" ACSI, May 15, 2007
Top 125 Training Organizations in America â€" Training Magazine, March 2, 2007
Top Corporation For Diversity â€" DiversityBusiness.com, January 22, 2007

2008

Top 125 Training Organizations in America â€" Training Magazine, February 2008
Top Green-IT Companies for 2008 â€" Computerworld, February 15, 2008
Carrier of the Year â€" Wireless Week, April 2008

2015

World's Best Wireless Data Service Provider Business Traveler, December 17, 2015
Winner in the 2015 Readers' Choice Survey for Cellular Services PCMag.com, September 15, 2015
The Best in Call Quality ConsumerSearch.com, March 2015

Content delivery systems

Get It Now, VCast, and VZNavigator

Overview

Get It Now (sometimes called GIN in user forums) is Verizon Wireless' implementation of Qualcomm's BREW technology, allowing a user to download and use applications on a Verizon Wireless Get-It-Now-enabled phone. It is a proprietary interface to download ringtones, music, games, applications, and use instant messaging on a phone. Users usually are unable to load content on the Verizon Wireless phones outside of Get It Now system; this is done for financial reasons. Verizon Wireless has exclusivity agreements with its Get It Now content providers (this is a walled garden system). Sometimes cell phone enthusiasts perform unsupported modifications to their phones or use 3rd-party software to make the phone accept non-Get-It-Now-originated content, or use free services that send ring tones through picture messaging, like Mobile17. In 2008 Verizon Wireless announced that their "Get It Now" service will be renamed "Media Center" on all their future phones beginning with the LG EnV2.

On March 25, 2011, Verizon sent a software update to Get It Now to users of some older phones. If the phone was not activated at that time, or had a data block, the phone did not receive the required update to continue Get It Now functionality. Phone models known to be affected include the LG VX8100, LG VX8300 and LG VX9100 series. Subscribers with these phones could no longer acquire applications, update applications and software or access Backup Assistant from their phones unless they visited a Verizon Wireless retail store and had the phone flashed with the update. (Verizon no longer has this service.)

All applications through Get It Now/Media Center are BREW-based and the selection differs depending on what Verizon phone is being used.

Many first-time mobile phone users freely access the Internet through Internet-capable phones ("Mobile Web"), only to find that a sizable charge has been added to their phone bill at month's end. Verizon currently charges $1.99 per megabyte (in 2014) pay-per-use or $10 per 75 megabytes (with a data feature for non-smartphones) downloaded into the phone from the Internet. This is called "Megabyte Usage" or "Data Usage". Whenever anyone accesses the internet, the charge is incurred, because in order to access the web, web pages must be downloaded into the phone for viewing. New customers are often confused on what activities incur a charge and which activities do not. Visiting 50 web pages uses approximately .3 MB of data. A visit to Media Center/Get It Now page incurs a charge, even if nothing is bought/downloaded. Music, games or ringtones downloads incurs the MB charge, but Picture/Video messaging (MMS) does not charge. Whenever data is being downloaded into the phone, a small phone icon with arrows going back and forth appears. If a specific type of unlimited download is included in the customer's plan, then the customer is charged a flat fee per month instead of per megabyte.

Blocks can be set by the account owner or an account manager to prevent specific types of usage, however there are caveats. Blocking data on a phone will also block MMS messages, even if the user has a messaging plan. (The user may get the notification via SMS, but will be blocked from downloading the attached picture or other file, even if the phone has another data connection.) Users without a messaging or data plan and no data block will be charged data for the file, in addition to a higher price for the message itself (25Â¢ instead of 20Â¢ on both prepaid and postpaid).

Verizon charges customers without a messaging plan for unwanted and unsolicited messages coming into the phone, which are automatically accepted by the phone and cannot be refused by the user in the way that a call can be ignored. Blocking SMS to prevent these overcharges will also block Verizon-generated messages, such as when the user tries to avoid voice overages by dialing #MIN (#646) to check usage of minutes.

VZ Navigator

Within Get It Now, Verizon has implemented an A-GPS navigation application, VZ Navigator, that works for the most part like a standalone A-GPS unit. Users can also locate businesses within their vicinity, searching by category or business name. Users can type in addresses and receive turn by turn directions to their destination.

V CAST

Also within Get It Now/Media Center is V CAST, Verizon Wireless' high-speed audio, video on demand, and entertainment delivery system.

V CAST Mobile TV

Verizon Wireless previously used Qualcomm's MediaFLO technology to broadcast live TV to certain phones, such as the LG Voyager. A VCAST mobile TV subscription was required. This service was discontinued in November 2010, and AT&T Mobility subsequently bought the frequency block (former UHF TV channel 55, known as "block D" in the 700Â MHz spectrum auction) for its own LTE service.

V Cast Music with Rhapsody

A subscription-based service which allows access for $9.99 per month for unlimited song downloads to a person's computer using the VCast with Rhapsody software. This program also allows the user to sync the music with up to three different media devices (mobile phones and MP3 players). The user has to authorize these devices through the VCast with Rhapsody software in order to sync the music. However if the consumer wants to move the music from digital to a physical medium (e.g., a CD) the consumer must pay 99Â¢ per song in order to move it to that physical medium.

Backup Assistant

Backup Assistant is a white-label product that backs up the mobile address books of Verizon Wireless subscribers. The contacts are stored on My Verizon and can be edited and migrated to a new device if needed. However, on March 25, 2011, Verizon discontinued offering Get It Now to users of some older phones. Subscribers with these phones can no longer access Backup Assistant from their phones without having the phone reflashed (which ironically destroys the address book, and everything else on the phone's memory). Backup Assistant is free for Verizon Wireless customers. The technology for Backup Assistant is provided by Synchronoss Technologies, Inc. In February 2010, Backup Assistant became free to all VZW subscribers. Verizon has also introduced Backup Assistant Plus, which allows customers to back up additional media such as pictures for a small fee and different plan sizes.

"Friends & Family"

On February 16, 2009, Verizon Wireless launched its new service, called Friends & Family, in light of their recent acquisition of Alltel Wireless, which had a similar service called My Circle; the 2005 purchase by Verizon of MCI gave them the trademark rights to the "Friends & Family" name, which had been the name of a landline long distance plan marketed by MCI in the 1990s. With an eligible plan, customers will have unlimited calling to a select group of numbers outside their standard mobile-to-mobile calling group, including landlines. This will give single line accounts up to 5 numbers to choose from on plans with 900 or more minutes, and family plan accounts up to 10 numbers to choose from on plans with 1,400 or more minutes.

Wireless Home Phone

In February 2011, Verizon Wireless rolled out "Home Phone Connect". This wireless home phone service competes directly with landline services from local carriers and offers unlimited US calling for $19.99/month plus taxes and surcharges. Although the Verizon Wireless Network is used to carry signal to and from the residence where the service is installed, subscribers use their home phones rather than a mobile handset to make and receive calls. The device which interfaces between the Verizon network and home phones is identical in function to the devices called ATAs which VoIP providers like Vonage use as an interface between the Internet and phones. Verizon Wireless promotes the fact that no Internet connection is required and supplies the interface device for free with a two-year contract or charges a one time fee of $149.99 on a month-to-month plan.

July 17, 2014 Verizon Wireless changed the name of the "Home Phone Connect" to "Wireless Home Phone", matching the general industry term also used by AT&T Mobility and others. The need for change explained by Verizon: "We want our product names to be more descriptive of what the products are. These names are simple, descriptive and will help our customers better understand what services are provided".

The device supplied by Verizon Wireless includes battery backup so that, like a PSTN line, it will continue to function during a power outage. It also has a GPS so that accurate location information can be provided on a 911 call.

The service is not compatible with satellite TV DVRs, medical monitoring devices, fax machines, and most wired home monitoring systems. Wireless security systems, however, circumvent the need for a landline connection and are therefore unaffected by the switch to Verizon's device.

A variant of the service is available for a $9.99/month plus taxes and surcharges. This is essentially an extra line on an existing Verizon Wireless mobile phone plan and does not include unlimited calling.

Partnerships

LTE in rural America

Verizon Wireless is leasing 22 megahertz of spectrum in the 700Â MHz band (block C, internationally known as band 13) to carriers in various rural markets through 2029 to help facilitate the faster rollout of LTE services. Verizon Wireless would not build out LTE services in those markets where a rural carrier is providing coverage and carriers are able to set their own pricing plans for the service, including offering unlimited data packages if they so choose.

Participants (list is not complete):

Appalachian Wireless
Bluegrass Cellular
Carolina West Wireless
Cellcom
Chariton Valley
Chat Mobility
Northwest Missouri
Pioneer Cellular
Strata Networks
Thumb Cellular

Catalyst Communications Technologies

On August 17, 2009 Verizon began their work with Catalyst Communications Technologies. Catalyst integrated Verizon Wireless Push-to-Talk service with traditional Land Mobile Radio (LMR) Systems. This allowed for greater RoIP. This advanced solution dynamically routes Push-to-Talk voice on the Verizon Wireless nationwide network and calls placed on private radio systems and connects the two together. The new solution routes push-to-talk voice and calls placed on private radio systems on the Verizon Wireless nationwide network. The Catalyst IP|Console provides dispatch of Verizon Wireless push-to-talk calls as well as legacy Land Mobile Radio calls. The solution is designed for public safety, transportation, energy, federal and other critical communications agencies.

Apple

On October 14, 2010 Apple Inc. and Verizon Wireless announced a partnership that would bring the Apple iPad to Verizon Wireless Stores across the United States on October 28, 2010. While the collaboration will not see Verizon compatible technology embedded in the iPad, it will bundle the iPad Wi-Fi with a Verizon MiFi 2200 Mobile Hotspot.

On January 11, 2011, Verizon announced during a media event that it had reached an agreement with Apple Inc. and would begin selling a CDMA2000 iPhone 4. The Verizon iPhone 4 went on sale on February 10, 2011. It includes features such as 'Mobile Hotspot', which allows a user to use the iPhone as a wireless hotspot, with up to 5 devices connecting at one time. It also has a new antennae that is said to solve the 'death grip', which means that holding the iPhone 4 in a certain way would deplete its signal rapidly. Due to the minor 2-mm downward movement of the volume buttons, cases were adapted to specifically fit the Verizon iPhone.

General Motors

On December 19, 2011, General Motors announced plans to join with Verizon to offer video chat and streaming content to automobile passengers.

Competitors

AT&T Mobility
Sprint Corporation
T-Mobile US

Controversies

GPS disabling of certain devices

Verizon no longer restricts or disables GPS chips in their phones. However, in previous years, Verizon restricted GPS functionality on many of the devices it sold. On November 30, 2007 Verizon Wireless was named in a class action lawsuit alleging the company deceived customers by advertising the devices as "GPS enabled". The suit alleged that, before sale, Verizon intentionally disabled the devices' built-in global positioning systems (GPS), offering instead a proprietary, fee-based GPS service.

Since this dispute, all smartphones sold on the Verizon network have their GPS receivers unlocked by default, and some older devices can be unlocked with a firmware upgrade. Phone hackers were able to restore GPS functionality in some older models that did not receive firmware updates. A-GPS, however, remains unavailable on some Verizon smartphones, notably the Palm Pre Plus, which requires aGPS to function as a standalone GPS, as Verizon claims it will.

FM radio disabling

Verizon blocks the use of FM radio chips that are installed on most smartphones (and many non-smartphones). This ranges from simply that demanding the manufacturer disable the device driver in the phone's operating system, to having a separate hardware version of the phone with the chip stripped out, making it impossible for those with Android phones to re-enable it by rooting the device.

Kelsey Smith cell phone records

On June 2, 2007, Kelsey Smith, a teenager from Overland Park, Kansas, was abducted in a Target parking lot behind the Oak Park Mall. She was murdered later that night, and immediately after an abandoned car was found, a search began for her. Local law enforcement involved in the investigation contacted Verizon Wireless, the family's cell phone provider at the time of the murder, for records to pinpoint a search location for her. A Verizon technician pinpointed a cell phone tower and told investigators to search 1.1 miles (1.8Â km) north of the tower. Within 45 minutes, the body of Smith was found. Verizon was criticized for being slow in responding. Johnson County District Attorney Phill Kline procured a subpoena authorizing him to see a map of the phone's location, but Verizon took two days to provide it.

Refunds for billing errors

On October 3, 2010, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) confirmed that they were investigating so-called "mystery fees" that Verizon Wireless was charging their customers. The "mystery fees" were charged to customers who did not have data usage plans, or had data blocks, but had devices capable of using data. These devices could access web-pages that were supposed to be free, and instead, they would incur charges. This happened as Verizon changed its plans from minutes to include data charges. At first there were no issues, however internally executives were warned by employees by internal forums. These were reported by several employees and referred to as "Phantom MB charges". Verizon charged $1.99/MB to customers without data plans.

On October 28, 2010, the FCC announced that they had reached a settlement with Verizon. Verizon refunded a minimum of $52.8Â million to 15 million customers. In addition to the refund Verizon Wireless provided relevant customer service training, information to consumers wanting refunds, and plain-language explanations of data charges.

In addition to the $52.8Â million Verizon Wireless paid in refunds, they also made a $25Â million payment to the U.S. Treasury. Verizon stated that the payment to the treasury was voluntary, and that they accepted responsibility for their errors. The payment to the treasury is the largest in history, followed by a $24Â million fine that Univision paid in 2007.

On April 5, 2011, Verizon Wireless agreed to pay the federal government $93.5 million (later increased to $96.5 million) to settle a "qui tam" case brought by a whistleblower. The lawsuit, brought under the federal False Claims Act, alleged Verizon fraudulently billed the U.S. government for voice and data communication surcharges for six years.

Tracking of users

In late 2014 it became known that Verizon Wireless uses deep packet inspection for server-side insertion of a customer-unique ID field ("X-UIDH") into all unencrypted HTTP headers. The mechanism has been referred to as "supercookie" or "perma-cookie", although it is not technically a cookie in that it does not store information on the customers device and is transparent to the user. It can not be averted with common mechanisms like ad-blockers; however it can not be inserted into encrypted HTTPS and VPN connections. Verizon advertises the system to marketing partners. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has called on Verizon to terminate the program, calling it a "profound violation of trust", expressing concern over abuse by third parties, and questioning the legality of Verizon modifying their users' outgoing data without offering them the possibility of a full opt-out.

Notes

Early in 2006, Verizon announced their intent to buy out the remaining 45% of stock of Verizon Wireless from Vodafone. However later that year, Vodafone stated they "have no current plans to exit" the US market by giving up its stake in Verizon Wireless.

On December 19, 2006, it was announced Verizon Wireless' CEO Denny Strigl has been called up to parent Verizon Communications to be the company's new President and COO. He was to begin serving in the new post on January 1, 2007. Verizon Wireless COO Lowell McAdam was to take over Strigl's role as CEO of VZW.

On January 9, 2009, Verizon Wireless, a joint venture of Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ) and Vodafone (NYSE LSE: VOD), announced today it has completed its purchase of Alltel Corporation from Atlantis Holdings LLC. Consistent with the terms of the transaction announced on June 5, 2008, Verizon Wireless paid approximately $5.9 billion for the equity of Alltel. Immediately prior to the closing, the Alltel debt associated with the transaction, net of cash, was approximately $22.2 billion.

On September 20, 2010, it was announced Verizon Wireless's CEO, and Verizon COO Lowell McAdam has been called up to parent Verizon Communications to be the company's new CEO, replacing Ivan Seidenberg. He was to begin serving in the new post on October 1, 2010. Verizon Wireless Daniel Mead was to take over McAdam's role as CEO of VZW.

Qwest Communications International Inc. (NYSE: Q) and Verizon Wireless announced on May 5, 2008 that they have signed a 5-year agreement for Qwest to market and sell Verizon Wireless service beginning the summer of 2008.

On November 28, 2011 Verizon Wireless retail workers in Bloomington, Illinois filed for union representation from the Communications Workers of America. The election was a narrow loss. The workers at this retail location as well as the CWA contend that the election was intentionally subverted by Verizon Wireless. This milestone election would have created the first union-represented Verizon Wireless retail location in the United States.

On February 21, 2012, T-Mobile filed a formal petition with the FCC asking them to block the sale to Verizon Wireless of spectrum first purchased at auction in 2006 by Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and Cox Communications.

On August 30, 2013, news circulated yet again that Verizon would be interested in purchasing the remaining ownership from Vodafone. The deal currently in progress is expected to have a vote from both votes Monday, September 2, 2013. The expected deal would include the largest corporate loan ever made of $65 billion, currently half of the prospective size of the total offer.

On February 21, 2014, Verizon Completed the Acquisition of Vodafone's stake in Verizon Wireless. The deal was valued at approximately $130 billion.

On April 7, 2014, Verizon entered an agreement with Cincinnati Bell Wireless to acquire CBWs Wireless Spectrum. Pending regulatory approval, the deal is expected to be completed in early 2015

On May 14, 2014, the retail workers in Brooklyn, NY voted for union representation and won with a 39-19 vote. They are now represented by the CWA.

References

External links

Verizon wireless reviews
Official website
Verizon Wireless at the Wayback Machine (archived May 19, 2000)

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Verizon Wireless

Thursday, May 7, 2015

Verizon Wireless

History