Verizon Wireless Plans to Open Its Cell Phone Network

Verizon Wireless subscribers will be able to use handsets and mobile applications from other companies by the end of next year, the #2 U.S. cell phone carriers announced on Tuesday in a major reversal of business strategy. For years in the U.S., consumers have been locked to networks, saddled with expensive two-year contracts, and restricted from doing things they would like to do with the products they buy.

Any phone or device maker will build a CDMA-compatible (code division multiple access) device, have it tested to meet minimum technical requirements, and sell that device as capable of running on Verizon's network. And it will let any application on that phone access its network. The company said it will release the technical requirements early next year and host a conference around the same time to discuss those standards, with the goal of having devices ready by the end of next year.

“This is a transformation point in the 20-year history of mass-market wireless devices,” Verizon Wireless CEO, Lowell McAdam said of the company’s new “any apps, any device” policy.

The wireless giant also announced plans to publish technical standards early next year, which will allow third-party developers to create hardware and software applications for use with Verizon networks

Lawmakers, regulators, and consumer groups have increasingly been calling for open wireless networks in recent years, arguing that the “walled garden” approach used by many carriers stifles innovation. The Federal Communications Commission has even gone so far as to require that a portion of the airwaves purchased at next year’s wireless spectrum auction must be opened up to work with any compatible device.

(November 28, 2007)

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