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Editor's Perspective
Potential for a sibling spat?
By Dan O'Shea
May 20, 2003
Verizon Communications' announcement to offer Wi-Fi as a free, but exclusive, extension of its DSL service wasn't a complete surprise. The Bell company had been weighing plans for public Wi-Fi access for a long time.
Its official announcement trailed, by almost two months, the Wi-Fi foray announced by the telco's mobile industry sibling,
Verizon Wireless. The mobile carrier is planning to start reselling Wayport Wi-Fi access to corporate customers in the third quarter this year, roughly the same time its wireline sister will be outfitting more Manhattan payphones with Wi-Fi.
One of the more glossed-over issues that have emerged in the last week is the potential conflict between the two companies' Wi-Fi efforts. Verizon Vice Chairman Larry Babbio insisted there wasn't a conflict, saying the Verizon siblings are going after two different sets of customers.
At the outset, this may be true, but we're still talking about two companies under the same corporate umbrella, which appear to have vastly different ideas about the value of Wi-Fi service. In short, the mobile company is charging for it while the telco isn't.
At some point, there will also be some customer overlap, as Verizon Wireless tries to use 3G mobile technology and Wi-Fi to help it win corporate business, while Verizon the telco does the same with its DSL/Wi-Fi package. Business customers that might start out buying Verizon Wireless-branded Wi-Fi are going to realize they can get DSL bandwidth and free Wi-Fi from the mobile company's sibling.
Babbio said the two companies haven't discussed coordinating their Wi-Fi offerings, though they might in the future. They might want to start talking now.
E-mail me at doshea@primediabusiness.com.
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Top News
T-Mobile drops summer Smartphone launch
May 16, 2003
European wireless giant T-Mobile, which said just three months ago it would begin selling a device based on
Microsoft's Smartphone operating system interface this summer, has dropped its plans for that launch.
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Tatara unveils Wi-Fi subscriber management suite
By Dan O'Shea
May 20, 2003
Tatara Systems, developer of a new Wi-Fi service delivery solution that debuts this week, is trying to help carriers make sense of an increasingly confusing and commoditized public hot spot landscape by showing them how to add distinct value and continue to manage hot spot users even after they log in to their corporate VPNs.
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InPhonic acquires Avesair
By Dan O'Shea
May 19, 2003
InPhonic has added SMS and MMS mobile marketing capabilities to its growing service delivery and distribution platform with the acquisition of
Avesair.
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Nokia, partners challenge Qualcomm
By Dan O'Shea
May 16, 2003
Nokia,
Texas Instruments and
STMicroelectronics have joined in an alliance to develop next-generation CDMA chipsets. The teaming will bolster Nokia's plan to produce handsets based on CDMA 1X EV-DV technology.
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In Print
Verizon packages DSL, Wi-Fi
By Kevin Fitchard
May 19, 2003
Verizon Communications made its most aggressive move yet into the Wi-Fi wireless LAN market last week when it announced it would offer free access across New York City to DSL subscribers.
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RBOC's plans rattle Wi-Fi market
By Dan O'Shea
May 19, 2003
Is the Wi-Fi market another bubble doomed to burst, or did
Verizon just do everyone a favor by legitimizing it?
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Deal of the Week
Jamdat buys mobile gaming rival
By Jason Ankeny
May 20, 2003
The old adage "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em" rings particularly true in the increasingly competitive world of mobile gaming, where Los Angeles-based wireless game publisher
Jamdat Mobile has agreed to acquire Canadian game developer
Hexacto.
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