Ted Stevens, the Republican Senator from Alaska who has held office for a record 40 years, has been indicted on seven counts of making false statements in connection with illegal influence peddling by the likes of convicted Veco CEO Bill Allen — who says the company dispatched employees to remodel Senator Stevens's…
Disgraced video comic Loren Feldman has been removed from Verizon's phone and broadband video-on-demand library. I wouldn't compare the guy to Lenny Bruce, but this much is true: Feldman, a member of both the Screen Actors Guild and the risqué Friars Club in New York, goes out of his way to be offensive and…
Obviously tired of being pestered with questions about iPhone this and Steve Jobs that, Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg put on a tinfoil hat and sat down for an interview with the Financial Times:
The average contribution from AT&T, Verizon and Sprint to the 94 Democratic congresscritters who change their votes from "no" to "yes" on the bill which would grant the companies immunity from charges of illegally wiretapping American citizens? $8,359. How much for all 293 "yes" votes, total? $2,830,087. Eleven…
The New York attorney general's office ran a "sting" in which agents posed as customers and complained to the companies that they could see child porn. When the service providers ignored them, the agency threatened the companies with fraud. Now, according to the Times, the ISPs are paying over a million dollars to…
In a statement last updated in 2003, Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg calls the company's "Privacy Principles" the best in the industry. One of Verizon's broadband customers doesn't buy it. He's forwarded us an email Verizon sent him updating its "Acceptable Use Policy." The policy now reads:
The members of Google's team for its multibillion-dollar wireless-spectrum bid worked themselves to exhaustion and sickness. That was all in an effort to force the contest's eventual winner to abide by "open access" rules Google convinced the FCC to adopt last summer for its 700-Mhz spectrum sale. The auction…
AOL moved into its new New York headquarters today, and new ad boss Lynda Clarizio has roped Verizon into paying a portion of the lease. The companies announced a deal today that will make AOL's Platform-A the exclusive manager of Verizon's Web and wireless ads. That inventory includes 94 million pageviews a month.…
"Is Faster Access to the Internet Needed?" Time Warner and AT&T say normal people don't need the Internet any faster than it is now, while Verizon and Comcast say "Um, OMG yes they do." Of course they do! Faster Internet means normal people will watch TV online, for one. But I'm abnormal; I spend over 12 hours a day…
The big winner in the U.S. government's recent wireless-spectrum auction was Verizon, having spent at least $4.7 billion and as much as $10 billion to acquire licenses nationwide. AT&T was the next highest bidder, with satellite broadcaster EchoStar the biggest of the new kids. Verizon unveiled plans to open up its…
The FCC's auction of the 700MHz spectrum, soon to be abandoned by analog television broadcasters, is over. Bids totaled $19.6 billion for licenses across the country. But it may be weeks until the winners are announced publicly. Among the big bidders, AT&T and Verizon are the most likely, and the most boring. Google…
While Comcast has been trying to curtail file sharing, Verizon has taken a hands-off approach. Why? It's not because Verizon executives are free-the-Internet libertarian nutjobs. No, it's because file sharing can make them more money. The phone company partnered with peer-to-peer software startup Pando Networks to…
The great wireless price war of 2008 continues. The latest salvo from Sprint: A new plan, called Simply Everything, offers unlimited voice, data, SMS, email, Web, music, TV, and Nextel's push-to-talk feature — for $99. The other providers charge between $140 and $150 a month for all that stuff. An AT&T spokesman…
The great cell-phone price war of 2008 has begun. Almost 2 weeks ago, Sprint introduced a $119 unlimited voice plan in four markets (including San Francisco). Today, both Verizon and AT&T have rolled out $99 all-you-can-talk voice plans nationally, with Verizon introducing a less-than-spectacular new EVDO data plan.
The world's worst filmmaker recently starred in a Verizon broadband ad parodying his blow-it-all-up-and-chant-"awesome" style, an ad which many received without critique, as if Michael Bay was letting everyone know he's in on the joke — that he knew he's just a soulless moneymaker. Bay has reduced of his body of…
Who needs the iPhone? Verizon Wireless added 1.9 million customers last quarter, more than analysts had predicted. In its financials, Verizon met expectations, making $1.1 billion on $23.8 billion in sales. The company also reported broadband subscribers were up 18 percent year over year, in part because of the…
Vonage isn't just facing service issues today. It's also been revealed that Nortel countersued the Internet telephone provider over a patent dispute. That makes four big telephone companies suing Vonage for patent infringement: AT&T, Sprint Nextel, Verizon, and now Nortel. The good news: At this rate, Vonage is…
Andrew Meyer, a student at the University of Florida who was tasered after trying to ask John Kerry questions at a forum, got his 15 minutes of fame when millions saw video of him saying, "Don't tase me, bro!" on YouTube. If you thought it was the funniest thing you've ever seen, and you're a Verizon Wireless…
