Verizon alters texting policy after protest
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NEW YORK - Verizon Wireless, the second-biggest US mobile-phone company, will allow members of an abortion rights group to sign up for a text-messaging program, reversing a decision.
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Filipinos have been masters of using text messages to rally political protesters. So what happened during last month's failed coup d'etat?Photos: Philippines as texting central
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Vonage downplays an appeals court decision affirming an earlier verdict of patent infringement on two patents owned by Verizon.
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Verizon Wireless has agreed to pay a fine and reimburse users who were disconnected for "excessive" use of a cellular broadband service that was marketed as allowing "unlimited" use, New York's state attorney general announced Tuesday.
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Verizon Wireless challenges the the FCC's proposed open-access rules for the upcoming auction of 700-MHz spectrum. Verizon's petition in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit calls the FCC regs "arbitrary and capricious."
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A federal judge has granted Verizon Wireless a permanent injunction in its suit against a man accused of sending unsolicited text messages to its customers.
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NEWARK, N.J. -- Reversing course, Verizon Wireless on Thursday said it will allow an abortion rights group to use its mobile network for a sign-up text messaging program.
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Google chuffed Verizon has abandoned its legal attack on new rules that would allow US consumers to attach any device and any application to a prime portion of the country's wireless spectrum.â¦
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Eight consumer and public-interest groups filed a complaint with the U.S. Federal Communications Commission, saying mobile phone providers should not be able to block text messages from political groups and advertisers.
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Customers of mobile-phone carriers shouldn&#39;t have to pay early termination fees if they&#39;re called to overseas military service or have their contracts automatically extended every time they call customer support, critics said Wednesday.Several lawmakers called for the U.S. Congress to pass a mobile-phone subscriber bill of rights during a hearing before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee.Last month, Senator Amy Klobuchar, a Minnesota Democrat, and Senator Jay Rockefeller, a West Virginia Democrat, introduced the Cell Phone Consumer Empowerment Act, , which would require mobile phone carriers to give customers more complete information on their coverage, prorate early termination fees, and prohibit carriers from misidentifying their own fees as government taxes.More information about coverage and dropped calls is needed, Klobuchar said. Verizon Wireless currently has a billboard near Fosston, a town in northwestern Minnesota, that says, &quot;Count on Verizon Wireless to keep you connected.&quot; Yet, Verizon phones don&#39;t get a signal near the billboard, she said.&quot;I believe you can have a competitive industry when people have full knowledge and are able to make decisions based on price comparisons ... or the service-quality comparisons,&quot; Klobuchar said. &quot;It&#39;s very difficult for my middle-class people in Minnesota, who don&#39;t have a lot of disposable income, to make their decisions if they don&#39;t have full information.&quot;The Minnesota Attorney General&#39;s Office has fielded complaints from military members headed overseas who have to pay hundreds of dollars to get out of their mobile phone contracts, said Lori Swanson, the attorney general. In another case, customers who made small changes to their service, such as buying batteries, had their service contracts extended without their knowledge; one woman who called Sprint Nextel to complain that she had been overbilled had her contract automatically extended, Swanson said.&quot;The burden should not be on the consumer to figure out the rules of the cell-phone shell game,&quot; Swanson said. &quot;There needs to be more transparency and more fundamental fairness.&quot;Sprint Nextel denied that it was extending contracts without letting customers know. &quot;We dispute every single one of her allegations,&quot; spokesman John Taylor said of Swanson.Klobuchar&#39;s bill would limit customer choices, he added. Service contracts help pay the subsidies for phone handsets that would otherwise cost $300 or more, he said.But Lowell McAdam, CEO of Verizon Wireless, and some Republican senators questioned the need for more regulations. Verizon Wireless publishes its coverage maps, gives customers a 30-day trial for new service, and prorates early termination fees, McAdam said.The U.S. mobile-phone industry is extremely competitive, McAdam said. The Cell Phone Consumer Empowerment Act would &quot;slow down a very innovative and dynamic industry,&quot; he said.Many of the provisions in the bill are already being adopted by mobile-phone carriers, added Senator Jim DeMint, a South Carolina Republican. &quot;For us to suggest that somehow we are going to be able to design a system that more effectively protects than a competitive market is well-intended but very naive,&quot; he said. &quot;Once we create a format here that everyone has to follow, that&#39;s the end of competition and best practices.&quot;But some senators complained that competition isn&#39;t protecting consumers enough. Although Verizon Wireless prorates termination fees and AT&amp;T just announced it would also do so, many other carriers do not, senators said. And published coverage maps can be inaccurate, Klobuchar said.Carriers should publish information on coverage and dropped calls on a county or Zip-code level, she said. &quot;We&#39;re not forcing you to put up towers,&quot; she added. &quot;We&#39;re simply saying, give the people the correct information.&quot;Verizon&#39;s McAdam suggested customers should look for other ways to determine whose service they should subscribe to. &quot;Like any consumer product, I think the best thing is to ask your friend and neighbors and try the service yourself,&quot; he said.
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Nextel agreed not to oppose Verizon Wireless&#39; use of the term &quot;push-to-talk&quot; when marketing a competing walkie-talkie service.
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Pressured by a lawsuit, Internet social network Facebook Inc. will adopt new measures to prevent its 58 million members from sending text messages to recycled cell phone numbers.
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By DAVE CARPENTER CHICAGO - Like any normal consumer, Tom Gruss was leery about the idea of a company sending promotional text messages straight to his cell phone.
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Verizon and Sprint have decided to eliminate or reduce a 40-cent-per-line monthly charge imposed to allow customers to transfer their phone numbers to new carriers.-The Washington Post
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After facing criticism for blocking content on its network, Verizon Wireless yesterday reversed its decision to bar an abortion-rights group from sending text messages to Verizon subscribers.
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WASHINGTONâA judge in New Jersey has granted Verizon Wireless a permanent injunction against Jacob Brown, a text-message spammer from Rhode Island.
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Verizon Wireless will allow an  abortion rights group to set up a text message system for its  subscribers after initially refusing the request based on what  the company called an outdated screening policy, a spokesman  said on Thursday.