Verizon Plans Wider Options for Cellphone Users - Via NYT > Business: In a major shift for the mobile phone industry, Verizon Wireless said yesterday that it planned to give customers far more choice in what phones they could use on its network and how they use them.
While there are technical limitations involved, the company’s move could lead to an American wireless market that is more like those in Europe and Asia, where a carrier’s customers can use any compatible phone to easily reach a wide array of online services — and take their phones with them when they switch companies. The move, which surprised industry watchers because Verizon Wireless is known to be highly protective of its traditional business, is part of a larger shift in the communications world.
With the introduction of the iPhone from Apple, one of the first mainstream multimedia devices, and Google’s plan to make the software that runs cellphones, the industry is being pushed toward a more open approach.
Carriers like AT&T and Verizon Wireless, which is a joint venture between Verizon and Vodafone, have spent billions on cell towers and other infrastructure, and traditionally they have tightly controlled what happens on their networks.
They decide what phones subscribers can use and then steer them toward ring tones, television shows and other products they can buy.
The details of Verizon Wireless’s alternative approach have yet to be worked out. The company did not disclose how much the service would cost or what rules would apply.
Lowell McAdam, chief executive of Verizon Wireless, said the company would hold a meeting with mobile phone makers and programmers in the first quarter of next year to talk about the service, with the goal of introducing it next summer.
“The trend we see here is an explosion of innovation,” Mr. McAdam said. “People want to take so much of what’s on the Internet and put it on the phone.”
Other companies are likely to feel pressed to follow Verizon’s lead, analysts and executives said. “If they don’t change their own business model, someone else will do it for them," said Roger Entner, a senior vice president at IAG Research. “This way they have control.”
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