Behold, the PlayStation Phone: full Xperia PLAY specs, details released

By Ben Kuchera

From  http://arstechnica.com/

 

While the iOS ecosystem may have evolved slowly into a gaming powerhouse, Sony is hoping to quickly push its gaming platform onto phones with the upcoming Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY. This the "PlayStation Phone" that has been rumored to exist for a very long time, and the details are finally here. The Xperia PLAY is coming to the United States this spring on the Verizon network first; the price remains unannounced.
Still, just look at it: a cell phone that plays games well and has actual buttons! Be still our beating hearts.

The hardware

The system features a four-inch capacitive multi-touch screen running at 480 by 854 resolution, and you'll be able to play 3D games for an estimated five and a half hours. There will be both black and white hardware at launch. Here are the rest of the specifications:

• Size: 119 x 62 x 16 mm
• Weight: 175 grams
• Phone memory: 400 MB
• Memory card support: microSD™, up to 32 GB
• Memory card included: 8GB microSD™
• Operating system: Google™ Android 2.3 (Gingerbread)
• Processor: 1 GHz Scorpion ARMv7

Games will be delivered through the Android Marketplace, and the system will ship with Asphalt Adrenaline 6, Bruce Lee, Star Battalion, The Sims 3, and Tetris preloaded, along with a "legendary" PlayStation title. "More than 50 additional titles from top franchises at leading game publishers will be available for purchase at launch," the announcement states.

Sony is also very excited about the buttons on the device, calling them "dedicated gaming controls for real console quality gameplay, including four-way directional keys, recognizable ABCD keys with PlayStation iconography, left/right shoulder keys, and two analog touch inputs for joystick action."

Sony is promising 60fps playback of these games with the built-in Andreno 205 GPU, and over five hours of gameplay isn't bad. This is the phone that's really going to show off what Sony's PlayStation Suite is capable of, and may even make iPhone gamers jealous of those built-in buttons.

Seriously, have we noted that we like the idea of a phone with gaming controls?

This should give the Android platform a nice push into the world of gaming, and we're looking forward to getting our hands on a handset as soon as possible. Still, the pricing on games is going to be key, as iPhone games have carved out a strong niche with touch controls and low prices. Sony needs to be realistic about the cost of these titles, even on a new device.

AT&T vs. Verizon iPhone - A comparison chart to help you choose

By Geoff Herbert

From: http://www.syracuse.com/

Photo IllustrationVerizon customers can pre-order the iPhone 4 starting February 3. The Verizon iPhone goes on sale to the public starting February 10.

Should you get the new Verizon iPhone? Or should you stick with AT&T? On February 10, AT&T will no longer be the only network offering the iPhone, leaving many users wondering if they should switch. Existing Verizon customers can pre-order the iPhone starting February 3.

Check out our quick comparison chart of the AT&T vs. Verizon iPhone, with a detailed explanation of the major differences below the graphic:



Price
Verizon's making a big deal out of the fact that they're offering unlimited data, but it costs $30 a month. That's a lot. The minimum voice-text-data plan from AT&T costs $64.99 a month - that gets you 450 minutes of talk time, 1000 text messages and 200 MB of data. The minimum from Verizon, on the other hand, costs $74.98 each month (450 minutes of talk time, 500 text messages, and unlimited data). If you don't plan on going app-happy and Googling everything on your iPhone, then AT&T's the best price.

Data Plans
If you do check the Internet and update your Facebook status often, Verizon's unlimited plan is enticing - but AT&T's $25 data plan gets you 2 GB per month and that's a hard amount to hit unless you watch videos or stream music constantly. You can listen to an hour of music every day, look at 20 sites daily, use 30 apps a week, and send 3000 emails a month and still wouldn't even hit 1.5 GB of data. Plus, any data used while connected to Wi-Fi doesn't count against a data plan - if you have Wi-Fi in your house or at work, it'd be near impossible to use even 500 MB. But still, that unlimited data plan is enticing.

Speed
Network speed is a tricky thing to assess, and both will tell you that their service is faster. In many cities, AT&T is technically faster, but the amount of data usage on their network (from iPhone users, mostly) slows them down and Verizon looks faster. In fact, CNet did a quick speed test (see the video to the right) and Verizon's iPhone was roughly 30 percent faster than AT&T's. Netflix also says their videos stream faster on Verizon than on AT&T. However, the GSM phone that AT&T uses has a max speed of 7.2 MB per second while Verizon's CDMA tops out at 3.1 MB per second. Both iPhones use the 3G network, but as AT&T expands its 4G towers (expected to be completed by early 2013), the Verizon iPhone may be left in the dust as the CDMA chip can only use 3G. The short version? Verizon's faster -- for now.

Reliability
AT&T's network has gotten slammed ever since they launched the iPhone, dropping almost three times as many calls as Verizon. It was recently rated the worst carrier by Consumer Reports, but experts say that might just come with the iPhone territory. According to Apple, 47.5 million iPhones have been sold in the last 12 months. Despite recent growth from Google's Android system, Nielsen reports the Apple iPhone is still the most popular on the market, accounting for 28.6 percent of all U.S. smartphones. Verizon says it's ready for the iPhone 4, but so did AT&T. If 12 million people buy the Verizon iPhone this year, as analysts predict, Verizon's reputation of reliability could be hurt. There is a slight redesign in the antenna of the Verizon iPhone, so it might not have as many issues with dropped calls, but only time will tell.

Tethering / Wi-Fi Hotspot
Verizon has the advantage here by far, but it comes with a price tag. The AT&T iPhone offers tethering with a Bluetooth, but Verizon offers tethering and the option to turn your smartphone into a Wi-Fi Hotspot, giving Internet access to up to five devices. However, any data you load on those devices from the Verizon iPhone Hotspot counts against your limit, which is 2 GB per month for $20. If you use an iPad and a laptop on your iPhone's Wi-Fi, you could eat that up in a week pretty easily, and each additional GB is another $20. However, if you don't use the web too much at home, a Verizon iPhone could conceivably replace your home Internet service and may save you money in the long run.

Data + Voice (Multi-tasking)
The Verizon iPhone has a CDMA chip, which means no multi-tasking because it runs voice and data on different tracks. AT&T wins here, allowing you to use apps or search sites while talking. Imagine you're on the phone with friends, discussing plans to go to the movies - you could browse movie times, read plot summaries and buy tickets without hanging up. The iPhone also has great GPS navigational apps like Mapquest, so you could talk on a Bluetooth in the car while following directions.

Conclusion
The Verizon iPhone is faster, the unlimited data is a plus (but may be only available for a limited time), and the Hotspot feature is sexy... but no multi-tasking, high prices, and a network that hasn't been tested with the data-heavy iPhone? Depending on what kind of user you are, both carriers have advantages and disadvantages. If you have to switch, it's probably not worth the price. If you're a Verizon customer already, you've been wanting the iPhone for months if not years, so you might as well stop waiting.
Keep in mind, Apple has introduced a new iPhone every year for the past three years. Could we see an iPhone 5 this summer? If so, that could change everything.

Verizon iPhone: A First Look

After almost a week with the Apple iPhone 4 for Verizon, it's clear that a new network makes one of the best smartphones even better.

By Lance Ulanoff

From: http://www.pcmag.com/

It's unlikely that, even without the "camouflaging" bumper on, anyone would've noticed that I've been carrying around a Verizon iPhone for the last few days. Except for some very subtle surface differences, this long-awaited phone is virtually indistinguishable from the AT&T model, but as I see it, the lack of major modifications makes this iPhone no less desirable or fun. I liked the AT&T Apple iPhone, despite a network about as reliable as my favorite team, the New York Mets. The Verizon iPhone features every bit of that fun, style, and power, and it adds a couple of new tricks that make it almost unstoppable.

Let's start with the network. I'm one of those unfortunate AT&T customers that lives in a dead zone. No, I'm not in some small, disconnected, backwater town. Instead I live just 50 minutes from the heart of New York City. Yet my AT&T connectivity has not improved one bit since I joined the network. This fact has filled my life with a never-ending series of bad connections and dropped calls on both myBlackBerry Torch 9800 and any AT&T iPhone I've tested.

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The Verizon iPhone features, of course, that little symbol in the upper left hand corner of the screen that tells you when you're on the Verizon network. And when I was on, I stayed on—everywhere. Call quality was consistently good, though not markedly better than the best AT&T connection. Those dual CDMA antennas that sit on either side of the phone (they're part of the metal band that wraps around the edge of the handset), kept me connected during calls and data sessions through every location I tested. Yes, I did see the phone drop to 2G speeds once or twice. The phone indicated this with a small circle next to the bars.

Testing Reception and the Hotspot
One of the other small changes in the Verizon iPhone is the reconfiguration of the antenna breaks. The Verizon iPhone is somewhat more symmetrical: there are two breaks per side. Some people believed that they could create the fabled "death grip" on the AT&T iPhone by bridging the somewhat asymmetrical antenna gaps on it. For fun, I took an AT&T iPhone and gripped it hard until I saw the bars drop. I also gave the Verizon iPhone a similar grip and never saw the bars drop down. Even so, I'm not sure what that proves. I tend to think of bars as stupid, inconsistent indicators that rarely give you the real picture of your connection quality.

There is one other thing that the Verizon iPhone brings to the picture and this may be my favorite feature: the personal hotspot. This is not new technology. Obviously, you can buy a MiFi personal hotspot or use competitor phones to achieve the same effect: a Wi-Fi hotpot for up to five of devices wherever you can find a 3G signal. Even so, it's a first for the now four-year-old iPhone brand. AT&T may want to hurry up and introduce the same capability on its iPhone.

The personal hotspot feature comes with the Verizon iPhone, but it's not free. It will cost an additional $20 per month (the Verizon iPhone is $199 for a 16GB model and $299 for a $32GB model, both with a two-year contract). Verizon has yet to announce specific data plans for the phone. I decided to see how the Verizon iPhone would handle a real-world situation, and this is where I fell a little in love with the new iPhone.

Looking for Differences
I asked my two children to come with me for a ride and bring both of their iPod touches. While in the car, I followed the on-screen instructions to set up a new hotspot. The Verizon iPhone automatically provides a Wi-Fi password you can share with those who want to connect to your phone (you can also create your own). The kids both saw the new Wi-Fi hotspot on their iPods and with the security key, they were connected in moments. I had a strong 3G signal and the kids had a strong Wi-Fi connection to the Verizon iPhone. We started driving and I asked my daughter to see if she could surf the Web. She went to Google and initiated an image search. The results came up immediately and she had no trouble browsing individual images. Simultaneously, my son opened Pandora and started streaming music. We hooked up the iPod to my car stereo. Only once during the 20 minute drive did the connection stutter, but it quickly recovered. The whole time, the Verizon iPhone noted on-screen that two people were connected to the personal hotspot. Apple said this alert is useful to ensure that there aren't more people leeching off your connection. If any of us had stopped using the hotspot for 90 seconds, the hotspot would have automatically turned off to conserve power.

I did dig around the Verizon iPhone looking for other notable differences, but I found little worth reporting. The buttons moved a millimeter or two on the body (this necessitated the creation of a new Universal bumper to support both iPhone carrier models), and the operating system got a point upgrade (to 4.2.6) to support the CDMA network.

I also tested the Verizon iPhone with the Jawbone Era, Aliph's latest Bluetooth headset. I put the Era in pairing mode and the Verizon iPhone instantly discovered it. Soon, I was listening to a Pink song in single-eared pseudo stereo along with the sound effects for Angry Birds. I also made a couple of calls which sounded good.

FaceTime and Final Thoughts
Since I also had an AT&T iPhone with me, I decided to have a little fun and started a FaceTime video call between the phones. Obviously, there's no reason an AT&T iPhone and Verizon iPhone can't do FaceTime. But as T-Mobile is quick to point out in its 4G commercials, you can't use FaceTime unless both parties are within range of a Wi-Fi network. We made sure our two phones were near Wi-Fi, and initiated the calls, which worked perfectly.

A few other Verizon-iPhone specifics: unlike many other Verizon smartphones, the Verizon iPhone does not come pre-loaded with any Verizon software. I like this: If I want something on my phone, I'll install it. Also, as a CDMA phone, there is no simultaneous voice and data capability unless you're also connected to a Wi-Fi network. If you're using the personal hotspot mode and a call comes in, the phone will prioritize the call.

The Verizon iPhone goes on sale to existing Verizon customers on Feb. 3 and becomes generally available on Feb. 10th. No ship dates were announced.

I think it's important to note that we are almost four years removed from the initial excitement of Apple's first phone, and there are reasons not to buy a Verizon iPhone. Nowadays there are many strong competitors on a variety of providers and from many different manufacturers. This iPhone isn't even on Verizon's new 4G LTE network, which makes it slower than some of the most exciting phones available today. But the unfortunate reality of these super-fast devices is that battery life is not so grand. Apple and Steve Jobs have always focused on performance in a variety of metrics, and if super-speeds have the potential to kill battery life—perhaps the most important factor in any mobile device—then it's unlikely we'll see a 4G iPhone any time soon. Considering the performance I found with the Verizon iPhone, I do not see this as a problem.

Overall, I liked the iPhone with AT&T, and I like it even more with Verizon. I expect many other consumers will feel the same. Sorry, AT&T.

Verizon iPhone Will Have $30 Unlimited Data Plan

By Darrell Etherington

From http://gigaom.com/

Customers planning to buy a Verizon iPhone have reason to celebrate today as the company’s COO, Lowell McAdam, has confirmed that there will indeed be a $30 unlimited data plan available for the device.

McAdam shared the news with the Wall Street Journal ahead of Verizon’s meeting with investors today.
iPhone buyers won’t have much of a choice when it comes to data options, however, as Verizon is also discontinuing its lower tiered 150 MB data plan, which costs subscribers only $15 a month. That option, just introduced last October, will be discontinued at the end of January, and won’t be available at all to new iPhone subscribers.

McAdams told the Journal that the decision to keep the unlimited plan for iPhone subscribers is specifically intended to attract subscribers away from rival AT&T. “I’m not going to shoot myself in the foot,” he said. “Not offering an unlimited plan would put up a barrier for customers who might otherwise switch from AT&T.”

AT&T currently offers two data plan to iPhone subscribers: 200 MB per month costs $15, while $25 will get you 2 GB of usage. AT&T discontinued its $30 unlimited data plan in June 2010 in an attempt to ease its network congestion problems.

Are higher data limits reason enough to convince you to switch to Verizon for iPhone service, if you weren’t convinced already?

Verizon Offers $200 Incentive to Upgrade to iPhone 4

by Paul Lilly
from http://hothardware.com/
 

Uh oh big fella, did you jump the gun on a smartphone this past holiday shopping season thinking that the Verizon iPhone 4 rumors would never come true? If you did, and assuming you were interested in the iPhone 4 to begin with, then you're probably left with a serious case of buyer's remorse. Bummer.

Don't despair. If you really, REALLY must own an iPhone 4, Verizon will help make it happen. There's a new entry in the wireless carrier's iPhone 4 FAQ that reads like this:

Q: I just purchased a new smartphone during the holiday season, but if I new that the iPhone 4 was going to be available soon I would have waited. What are my options now?

A: Current Verizon customers who purchased and activated new smartphones, feature phones, or certified pre-owned phones between 11/26/2010, and 01/10/2011, are eligible to receive up to a $200 Visa debit card when they purchase an iPhone 4 at full retail price by 02/28/2011 and return their existing phone. Note: This offer is only available on consumer accounts with five lines or less, who are purchasing iPhone 4 through Verizon Wireless retail stores, telesales, or through verizonwireless.com.

Before you jump for joy and damage your ceiling fan, keep in mind that Verizon's full retail price for the iPhone 4 is $650 for the 16GB model and $750 for the 32GB variant, so you're looking at a $450-$550 upgrade. But hey, if you absolutely have to have one, a $200 Visa card is better than nothing, no?

iPhone 4 - Verizon Wireless - February 10, 2011

Beginning February 10, the phone that changed everything will be available on both AT&T and Verizon Wireless in the United States. Qualified Verizon Wireless customers will also have the exclusive opportunity to pre-order iPhone 4 online on February 3, ahead of general availability.
Whichever network you choose, you’ll get FaceTime video calling, the high-resolution Retina display, a 5-megapixel camera, HD video recording, long battery life, and all the other great features of iPhone 4.

Learn more about iPhone 4

Verizon Wireless customers, check your iPhone 4 eligibility

Watch the Live Press Event here:  http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/11/live-from-verizons-iphone-event/

 

Verizon shows off iPad TV app and more

by Marguerite Reardon
from: http://news.cnet.com/

Verizon Fios TV subscribers will be able to watch live TV on an iPad using a new app due to come out sometime next year.

(Credit: Marguerite Reardon/CNET)

NEW YORK--Verizon Communications is prepping a new live TV streaming app for tablet PCs like the Apple iPad, a move that could eventually eliminate the need for a home set-top box and set the stage for true "TV everywhere" viewing.

At a demonstration at the home of Verizon CTO Shaygan Kheradpir, Verizon executives showed off a slew of new features for its Fios TV service, including the live TV streaming application on an iPad.

The new app allows Fios TV subscribers to stream live TV from their service onto an iPad over a home Wi-Fi connection. Initially, the service will work only in the home. But Kheradpir said that eventually the service could be offered as part of Verizon's TV-anywhere strategy, allowing people to access live TV anywhere they are using a username and password to authenticate the service.

"We built Fios TV as a cloud computing product," Kheradpir said. "The set-top box function is all done in software, and we simply redirect the broadcast TV signal to another screen. And because the set-top function is in software we can implement the functionality in devices."

Kheradpir said that the iPad is a perfect device for the application because of its elegant design. The large touch screen is big enough for comfortable TV viewing. And the device also turns on and off quickly, unlike many laptops, which take several minutes to boot up and shut down.

Verizon CTO Shaygan Kheradpir shows off a new app that allows people to watch live TV on an Apple iPad.

(Credit: Marguerite Reardon/CNET)

Eventually the app will be available for other tablet PCs as well as other connected devices, such as laptops and mobile phones.

"We have to start the engineering somewhere." Kheradpir. "And the iPad is an ideal device for this."

Kheradpir told journalists at the demonstration that the app is technically ready to go, but the company must wait until it has signed deals with content providers before it will go live with the service. The company is currently negotiating with several major cable and broadcast TV providers, such as Time Warner, to hammer out programming agreements.

"The engineering work is done," he said. "Now we have to work with the ecosystem and the content community to come up with equations that work for everyone."

The agreements that Verizon and other paid TV services make to offer certain TV channels as part of its service are for TV viewing only. Traditionally, content providers have negotiated separate agreements to stream live broadcasts on other devices, such as mobile phones.

Shawn Strickland, vice president of Fios product management for Verizon, said the company doesn't intend to pay content providers more to make programming available on multiple devices in the home. But he admitted that every negotiation with every provider is different.

Kheradpir made the argument that content providers actually benefit from allowing their programming to be viewed in this way. He used his own family as an example. He said that he and his wife watch CNN television all the time. But his 18-year-old daughter doesn't usually watch the cable station live. Instead, she checks the CNN Web site online in her bedroom on her laptop. Once Kheradpir started testing the new iPad app at home, his daughter altered her behavior.

"Now she takes the iPad to her room and watches the live CNN TV stream," he said. "So now CNN has won her back as a TV viewer instead of someone who only goes to the Web site."

Verizon executives said the new application will likely be available next year. But Kheradpir didn't rule out offering the new service sometime in 2010.

Reducing the number of set-top boxes
While there's no doubt the application extends where TV can be viewed, it also demonstrates how to cut down on the number of set-top boxes used in the home. Executives admitted that the set-top box won't go away entirely anytime soon, but as more functionality is pushed into the Verizon service cloud and more devices are equipped with software to render video signals on any device, there will eventually be less need for such devices.

"This is more economical for us," said Strickland. "We don't have to spend the capital to put boxes everywhere."

This proposition may not sit well with the two largest companies that make set top-boxes: Motorola and Cisco's Scientific Atlanta. These companies already have a lock on the set-top box market. For years the FCC has been trying to break the market to allow for more innovation in the set-top market. In fact, the National Broadband Plan the FCC developed earlier this year, has a section describing the need for more competition in set-top boxes.

Kheradpir said eventually this will be unnecessary.

"The FCC is trying to solve a problem that doesn't exist anymore," he said. "They are 20 years behind. The world has moved on. We are way ahead of what they are thinking with what we have done with the software."

Verizon is nearing the end of its $23 billion project to wire two-thirds of its territory with fiber to the home connections. The company now has 3.8 million customers for Fios Internet and about 3.2 million for Fios TV, according to the company's second-quarter results. The infrastructure makes service available to roughly 18 million people, and Verizon is now in the process of expanding its customer base within the existing territories where it has built the network.

The new streaming app for Verizon Fios TV will eventually allow subscribers to watch live TV and video on demand on any device, anywhere.

(Credit: Marguerite Reardon/CNET)

Since the company launched the Verizon Fios TV service, it has continually upgraded the features of the service, giving subscribers additional content and features at no extra cost. On Wednesday, the company announced a slew of new offerings that will be available to all Fios TV subscribers by the end of the year.

In an effort to compete with over-the-top Internet offerings and some offerings from competitors such as Comcast, Verizon will soon offer movie purchase and rental options and a three-screen or "Flexview" option that allows subscribers to view digital rights-protected video content to be shown on up to five other devices.

Standard-definition and high-definition movies can be bought or rented for between $2 to $18. Files that consumers own, they will own for life, even if they leave the Fios TV service. Most video rentals expire within 48-hours after the first playback.

Verizon is also allowing subscribers to store their own personal content, such as pictures, video, and music in the cloud with the option to listen or view the content anywhere there is an Internet connection using a Fios app.

At launch, the movie and personal content apps will be accessed on a number of platforms, including Mac and PC computers, as well as mobile-phone platforms Google Android, Research In Motion, and Windows Mobile. An app for the iPhone is coming, but Verizon executives said they are unsure when the app will be approved and available.

The video and personal media can be streamed over Wi-Fi, 3G, and 4G networks, regardless of provider. The only limitation is that the service is available on up to five devices at any given time. But executives said they have made it easy to authorize and de-authorize devices to accommodate usage on many devices. And if the company finds that more device authorizations are needed, it will eventually bump up the number.

These services will be offered to Verizon Fios TV customers later this year at no additional charge.

Verizon, Motorola Introduce Droid X

By: Sascha Segan
From: http://www.pcmag.com/

Verizon Wireless and Motorola on Wednesday introduced their latest Android-powered smartphone, the Droid X. The Motorola Droid X has a large 4.3-inch touch screen, an 8-megapixel camera and a 1-GHz TI processor.

"You have essentially a personal supercomputer," Google chief executive Eric Schmidt said at the announcement.

The Droid X is clearly an important product for Verizon, Google, Motorola and Adobe, who all sent top executives to introduce the phone in simultaneous events in New York, Chicago and San Francisco. It's also Verizon's fourth offering in the Droid line, after the original Motorola Droid; and the Droid Eris and the Droid Incredible, both HTC phones.

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Like the HTC EVO 4G for Sprint, the Droid X is a large slab (2.6 inches x 5.0 inches x 0.4 inches, weighing 5.47 oz) with a big, bright screen running the Google Android operating system. Unlike the EVO 4G, the Droid X runs Motorola's own skin over Android 2.1. This isn't the company's earlier MotoBlur software, but a new set of widgets for social networking, messaging and media that do things like integrate Twitter messages into your e-mail inbox.

The Droid X is Motorola's 11th Android-powered smartphone, Motorola chief executive Sanjay Jha said. It's also a great phone, he said. Motorola spent considerable time working on improving phone call quality on the Droid X, and gave the device multiple antennas and three microphones for improved noise cancellation. One microphone, which faces out, helps record great sound for videos taken with the HD 720p video camera mode.

The Droid X's 854-by-480 screen and HDMI video out "screams video," Stratton said, so the device will come with some cutting-edge video applications. The phone can rent and buy movies from Blockbuster that play at 800-by-480 resolution on the phone's screen. A newly-updated NFL app will stream live games to the phone, and V CAST Video will provide a range of other video clips.

Skype has also been integrated onto the Droid X, just like on many other Verizon smartphones.

Shantu Narayan, Adobe's chief executrive, participated in the launch even though the Droid X won't have Adobe Flash when the phone comes out on July 15th. Even though the phone has been designed to run Flash, and Flash content will be hardware-accelerated for better speed and lower power usage, the Droid X ships with Android 2.1. Flash requires version 2.2. Both the new Droid X and the older Motorola Droid will get a 2.2/Flash upgrade "later this summer," Stratton said.

The phone supports wireless hotspot mode, too. A $20/month fee gets you 2 Gbytes of wireless hotspot or tethered PC use, over and above the standard $30/month data charge which lets you use the Internet on the Droid X itself in an "unlimited" way, Stratton said.

The phone has a large, but removable 1570 mAh battery and can be upgraded to a 1930 mAh battery that is only one millimeter thicker, Jha said. Other specs include 8 GB of internal memory, a 16GB included MicroSD memory card, GPS, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth support.

Although the Droid X is coming out just a day before Apple's official sale date for the new iPhone 4, the announcement was mostly free of digs at Apple. Schmidt got in one when he called the phone "not a toy, not just an app engine," but the assembled executives were much more focused on promoting the diversity of the Android ecosystem. Google said today in a press release that 160,000 Android phones are being sold per day, worldwide.

The Droid X will arrive at Verizon on July 15th and cost $299.99, minus a $100 mail-in rebate. Any Verizon customer with a plan that expires in 2010 will be eligible for the upgrade price, Stratton said. Accessories will include a car kit that automatically kicks the phone into "car mode," and an HDMI-compatible dock.

The Droid X is exclusive to Verizon Wireless, but a similar model may come out in the future on international carriers, Jha said.

Is Verizon’s New Early-Termination Fee Anti-Consumer?

by John Paczkowski
http://digitaldaily.allthingsd.com/20091106/ve/

Beginning Nov. 15, Verizon subscribers looking to get out of their smart-phone contracts early will pay $350 for the privilege. That early-termination fee is double the current one, but Verizon insists it’s justified because of the higher prices of today’s phones.

“The cost of smart phones is considerably higher than feature phones for which the early termination fees were created years ago at $175,” said Verizon spokesman Jim Gerace. He added that the new $350 ETF declines by $10 per month through the life of the contract and customers can avoid it by buying their devices off contract and paying full retail price.

An interesting move for Verizon (VZ), which just last year agreed to pay $21 million to settle a class-action lawsuit filed by California consumers over the very early-termination fees it is now increasing. The plaintiffs in the suit alleged that Verizon’s ETFs were illegal under California law and that they were designed to unfairly lock consumers into long-term contracts and prevent them from switching carriers. When Verizon settled the suit, it denied any wrongdoing, insisting that early-termination fees are simply a means of recovering legitimate costs. And to some extent Verizon does have a point.

Full retail price for the Motorola’s (MOT) new Droid is $559.99. With a two-year contract, Verizon sells the handset for $199.99. Theoretically, that’s a $359.99 subsidy (I have no idea at what price Verizon purchases Droid from Motorola). So if Verizon allowed subscribers to break their contract after a month without paying an early-termination fee, the company would stand to lose money. And subscribers who did so could subsequently sell the device online and potentially make a profit, though a small one.

So it’s certainly understandable that Verizon and other carriers want to protect the subsidies they dole out for these new smart phones. And as noted earlier, Verizon’s new ETF drops by $10 each month a subscriber remains under contract. But at this rate, subscribers are still bound to pay a $110 termination fee in the 23rd month of a two-year contract. The contract is nearly over, the subscriber obligation to Verizon almost fulfilled, yet the company can still slap its customers with nearly a third of the full ETF if they break it at that time.

By month 23 of a two-year contract, does Verizon really stand to lose $110 if subscribers decide to switch carriers? Doesn’t seem likely if subscribers can walk away just a month later without consequence, taking their handsets with them.

Since Verizon is pro-rating the ETF, why isn’t it doing so in such a way that it zeroes out by the end of the contract?

And isn’t the fast pace of innovation in the smart-phone sector such that prices–for both component and device–are dropping so quickly that high ETFs aren’t really justified? Remember, you can get Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone for $99 today. When the iPhone debuted in 2007, it commanded a price of $499/$599, depending on model.

I’ve put those same questions to Verizon and will update here when I hear back. In the meantime, here’s what Consumers Union policy analyst Joel Kelsey has to say on the matter: “When people want to switch wireless services, the biggest cost they face is early termination fees. These fees are designed to lock people into long-term contracts and stop them from getting better deals. Early-termination fees make the marketplace less competitive. Verizon’s move is painful proof that it’s time for lawmakers to crack down on these fees.”

UPDATE: Verizon Wireless spokesperson Nancy Stark offers the following answers to the questions I posed above:

Your first question regarding the balance at month 23 or 24 assumes that, at that point, we have recovered all of our subsidy and up-front costs for every device. That simply is not so.

On your second question, while the pace of innovation plays a role in prices coming down somewhat, it also plays a role in driving up costs as more and more complexity that customers want is added to phones–from premium HTML browsers to high-resolution MP cameras with optical zoom; videoplayers; music players; dual processor chipsets; WiFi; very high display resolution, operating systems such as BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, Palm, Android–ALL with the added value (vs a desktop) of mobility, and ALL in one tiny device that ALSO allows you to talk to anyone from anywhere. phew! (by comparison, I recently paid $200 for a camera and all it can do is take pictures, and it has only middle of the road capabilities.)

But getting back to ETFs specifically. The most important point is that Verizon Wireless customers do not have to have an ETF at all if they do not want to. ETFs allow customers to have it either way: They can have no ETF and pay full retail for their device. OR, they can get a greatly discounted device by having an ETF.

Why You Can’t Get a Good Phone With Verizon

• By Priya Ganapati

Why does the U.S. carrier known for the best network have the worst smartphones?

Verizon Wireless gets plaudits for its coverage and call quality, but consistently loses out to AT&T, T-Mobile and even Sprint when it comes to getting the newest high-end handsets.

“They lack the star products that their competitors have,” says Avi Greengart, research director, consumer devices for Current Analysis. “They recognize they don’t have compelling devices right now but feel they can make up for it with network quality.”

Case in point: Last week when Motorola co-CEO Sanjay Jha proudly showed off the company’s much-talked about first Android phone, the Cliq, he had his arms rather awkwardly around T-Mobile executive Cole Brodman.

“We never considered another carrier for this phone,” Jha told Wired.com.

The Cliq, a coup for T-Mobile, reinforces the new pecking order among wireless carriers. With the iPhone 3G and 3G S, AT&T is now at the top of the pack in its ability to attract new customers willing to switch to the carrier’s network. Sprint and T-Mobile are trying to catch up: Sprint launched the Palm Pre on its network in June and plans to introduce the HTC Hero later this year. And T-Mobile has carved out a niche as an Android specialist with last year’s launch of the first Android phone (the G1), the HTC myTouch earlier this year and now with the Moto Cliq.

As for Verizon? The company has the popular but critically panned BlackBerry Storm and the rather staid and Wi-Fi–less BlackBerry Tour. The carrier known for the best network now has the least attractive lineup of smart phones.

It’s a puzzling situation for Verizon. The wireless carrier has had the most customers of any cellular operator in the country since its 2008 acquisition of Alltel, and it’s widely regarded as having the largest network coverage area. So the fact that it can’t offer its customers better smartphones is a bit of a mystery.

Verizon’s extremely conservative approach to new handsets, the company’s long and rigorous testing procedures, and its emphasis on the network rather than the phone have created a portfolio that’s a complete buzzkill, say experts.

“Verizon doesn’t have too many options,” says Michael Mace, a former executive with Palm and Apple and currently a principal at strategy-and-marketing consulting firm Rubicon Consulting. “They can’t get the iPhone right now, and they can’t take Nokia devices and start promoting them. All they can do all they can do is push the BlackBerry as hard as they can and hope for a new Motorola phone.”

(Nokia largely makes GSM phones, which won’t work on Verizon’s CDMA network, though the Finnish phone manufacturer has created a select few devices to run on the Verizon network.)

Not surprisingly, Verizon spokesperson Brenda Raney says the carrier would rather focus on its network than on the gadgets that use it.

“Keep in mind that for Verizon Wireless, it isn’t so much about the device as it is about the delivery,” she says. “We have the nation’s largest 3G network so when we offer devices on our network, customers can be assured that they will deliver as promised.”

It’s pretty clear that Verizon didn’t deliberately choose to be the boring-but-predictable, safe-but-unexciting choice. In some ways, it simply got overtaken by the technology.

Over the last two years, with the launch of the Apple iPhone, the smartphone business changed rapidly. There are conflicting reports on whether Apple ever offered the iPhone to Verizon; Verizon reportedly turned it down.

But with AT&T as the official partner for Apple, the smartphone business took off in a new direction. With its extremely responsive touchscreen, sleek and elegant interface, and full PC-like browsing experience, the iPhone set a new standard. Customers flocked to AT&T, flooding (and sometimes overloading) its network.

Along the way, they left a trail of broken contracts with other carriers. In 2007, when Apple launched the iPhone, 25 percent of iPhone buyers had switched to AT&T from another carrier, according to an estimate from American Technology Research.

Meanwhile, as smaller handset makers scrambled to get competitive devices to market, they came up with some unexpectedly good alternatives — and Verizon lost out there, too. When Palm created the Palm Pre, a device that won praise for its compact hardware design and smart user interface, it offered the device to Sprint. Sprint had been a long-time partner of Palm, sticking with the company through years of increasingly lackluster Treos and the inexpensive but popular Centro, so it’s no surprise that Palm rewarded its partner’s loyalty.

Taiwanese phone maker HTC also grabbed center stage with the first Android phone, the G1. The G1 made its debut on T-Mobile’s network, largely because the carrier is more willing to take risks and experiment with new products than others.

Verizon may have been lulled into a false sense of security because of its relationship with BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion. When RIM created its first touchscreen device, the Storm, it inked an exclusive deal with Verizon. Despite tepid reviews of the Storm, Verizon sold more than a million phones within weeks of its launch.

In June, Verizon, along with Sprint, offered the BlackBerry Tour, a Curve-like phone with QWERTY keyboard, 2.4-inch display, GPS and 3G. A well-designed device, the Tour failed to get smartphone enthusiasts excited because it lacked innovative and surprising new features.

Also, while Verizon had promised an “any apps, any device” open-network program in 2007, it has reworked the idea to include just non-consumer devices such as routers, not consumer handsets. Instead, the company has focused on creating an app store for developers.

Meanwhile, it is trying to win customers through some extremely competitive pricing. Consider the HTC Touch Pro 2 phone, a smartphone running the Windows Mobile operating system and targeted at business users. The device is available after a rebate and on contract with Sprint and T-Mobile for $350. On Verizon it costs $200. Verizon has also been running a ‘buy one, get one free’ promotion for its BlackBerry phones.

“Most of Verizon’s current line up is below $100,” says Greengart. “If you go back a year this was not the case. Lately, Verizon has been very aggressive when it comes to pricing.”

Verizon isn’t willing to concede it may have lost ground to other carriers when it comes to attracting the newest phones. “We have a very robust portfolio of smartphones and will continue to add more in coming months,” says Raney. “We were the first to bring the BlackBerry Storm to market and just recently introduced the HTC Touch Pro 2.”

Though the company won’t talk about the devices it has planned for later this year, it is sure to introduce a successor to the BlackBerry Storm, a touchscreen phone dubbed the Storm 2. Industry watchers also expect Verizon to bag an upcoming Motorola device for its network. “We feel we will remain competitive,” says Raney.

But counting on a new BlackBerry device here or a Motorola phone there may not be enough for Verizon. The company will have to take a different road if it wants to get ahead, says Mace.

Verizon could work on offering attractive nonphone devices that connect to the network such as netbooks and tablets, he says.

“That market is not as developed as smartphones, but it would be an interesting opportunity,” he says. “It will be logical place for them to go.”

Time Warner Cable, Verizon to test TV on the Web

By Yinka Adegoke

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Two more U.S. pay-TV providers, Time Warner Cable Inc and Verizon Communications Inc, plan to test systems to offer shows on the Web to paying customers in a bid to protect their subscription revenue.

Time Warner Cable and Verizon separately announced their plans on Thursday and will follow Comcast Corp, the largest U.S. cable operator, which said in July it would test a Web TV service with some of its customers.

Pay-TV companies are concerned that the recession-resistant subscription revenue of cable television could be undermined if cable shows became widely available over the Web, effectively cutting out the cable and satellite TV operators.

So the cable network industry, led by Time Warner Inc Chief Executive Jeffrey Bewkes, is testing a concept called TV Everywhere as a way for paying cable subscribers to access cable shows over the Web via an authentication process.

Time Warner Cable said its TV Everywhere trial will include the NBC Universal-owned Syfy channel; Time Warner's TNT, HBO and TBS; Cablevision Systems Corp's AMC, IFC and Sundance Channel; and BBC's BBC America.

CBS Corp and Discovery Communications Inc are also involved in the trial.

Time Warner Cable's test involves making TV shows available on the Web to 5,000 homes of paying subscribers. They will be able to access the shows on the networks' own websites, as well as on Time Warner Cable's Web properties.

Verizon, meanwhile, will launch a TV Everywhere trial of its FiOS TV online with programing from Time Warner's Turner networks, TNT and TBS for no extra cost to FiOS subscribers.

DirecTV Group Inc, the largest U.S. satellite TV provider, is also working on a version of TV Everywhere, according to a person familiar with its plans.

While cable network owners are determined to stop the successful pay-TV television business model from being undermined by programing made available free on the Web, the major broadcast networks have taken a different approach.

Because free-to-air broadcasters are dependent on advertising revenue rather than subscriptions, they have made their shows readily available over the Web. Sites like Hulu, owned by News Corp, NBC Universal and Walt Disney Co, are free to anyone and feature broadcast network programs such as "The Office" or "House."

In a few cases, some episodes of full cable programs are now available free on the Internet.

(Additional reporting by S. John Tilak in Bangalore; editing by Gerald E. McCormick and Andre Grenon)

© Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved

Boston / Seattle get To test high-speed 4G cellular network

By Hiawatha Bray Globe Staff / August 13, 2009

Verizon Wireless has selected Boston and Seattle as the first two US cities to test its new wireless data service, with speeds five to 10 times faster than the service used today by such popular handsets as Apple Inc.’s iPhone.

The new network could mean big changes in the ways people use their smartphones or laptop computers, at home and on the road. Today’s networks, known as 3G, are good enough for checking e-mail or visiting websites, but they’re too slow for high-quality video or real-time video gaming. They can’t match the speed of the hard-wired Internet services offered by telephone and cable TV companies.

Verizon Wireless’s new network, called 4G, will have the ability to display crystal-clear videos and allow users to play complex multiplayer games, or hold two-way videoconferences. Consumers might replace broadband Internet services from cable and phone companies with the new wireless service, in the same way some have ditched their traditional, hard-wired telephone lines in favor of cellphones.

Verizon Wireless will not say what it plans to charge for the new service, or reveal the speeds it will provide consumers. News of 4G’s debut cities came in a Verizon Wireless conference call for investors on July 27, and the company said it is not yet ready to speak publicly about it.

But Godfrey Chua, research analyst at IDC Corp. in Framingham, said it would almost certainly deliver enough speed to offer serious competition to traditional Internet services. “If you have cable modem at home, it gets us up to that level,’’ Chua said.

Cable TV and Internet giant Comcast Corp. said it does not believe that 4G poses much of a threat. Spokeswoman Mary Nell Westbrook noted that the nation’s first 4G service, offered in several cities by Clearwire Corp. of Kirkland, Wash., can’t measure up to Comcast’s higher-speed Internet products. “Our services are so much faster than that today,’’ Westbrook said.

Verizon Wireless will use a technology called Long-Term Evolution, or LTE, to build its new 4G network. Some carriers are adopting a separate system called WiMax.

“The hope with LTE and WiMax is at some point, they could start displacing your DSL and cable providers,’’ said Allen Nogee, an analyst at In-Stat, a technology research firm in Scottsdale, Ariz.

A report issued in February by the company’s chief technology officer, Dick Lynch, said Verizon Wireless’s LTE system has been tested at speeds almost 60 times faster than the company’s current 3G network.

The Boston and Seattle deployments are just the beginning, according to Verizon Wireless president Denny Strigl, who said in the conference call that the company intends to launch the new services in up to 30 markets next year, making the service available to as many as 100 million potential subscribers.

The new 4G networks will be a boon for consumer electronics makers, because today’s cellphones and laptops won’t work with the new technology. Millions of subscribers will need to purchase new phones and plug-in computer adapters to connect to the new networks.

While Verizon Wireless is moving quickly toward 4G, the second-biggest cellphone carrier in the US - AT&T - is taking its time. AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel said that his company won’t even begin testing a 4G service until 2011. Instead, this year it will upgrade its existing 3G network to deliver about seven times the current speed.

“3G is going to be around for a long, long time, even as 4G is deployed,’’ Siegel said.

T-Mobile USA, the fourth-largest cell carrier in the country, is also taking a go-slow approach to 4G. The company hasn’t even finished building its 3G network yet. Like AT&T, T-Mobile will boost its 3G performance through a technology upgrade, though T-Mobile won’t say how much speed it expects from the improved network.

Clearwire, which used the WiMax technology to build its 4G network, has signed up residential consumers in Baltimore, Atlanta, Las Vegas, and Portland, Ore., and charges $20 a month for Internet service at home. For an additional $30 a month, Clearwire subscribers can get a mobile broadband service that lets them connect laptops wirelessly when they’re on the road. Comcast offers hard-wired service at one-sixth of Clearwire’s speed for $25 a month, or a much faster service for $43.

Mike Sievert, Clearwire’s chief commercial officer, said that many users have unplugged their wired Internet providers, and use the Clearwire service as their only broadband source.

That’s not necessarily bad news for Comcast, which is a major investor in Clearwire.

Comcast markets Clearwire’s 4G service as part of a “quad play’’ bundle, along with Comcast telephone, cable Internet, and cable TV service. Another major Clearwire investor is cellular carrier Sprint Nextel Corp., which already sells Clearwire-compatible laptop cards, and plans to introduce a 4G phone sometime between now and 2010.

The lure of wireless broadband service is even attracting smaller players. MetroPCS Communications Inc., the sixth-largest US cellular carrier, serves 5.4 million subscribers in eight states, including Massachusetts. MetroPCS specializes in prepaid cellphone services which have traditionally been favored by low-income users who generally don’t buy wireless data services. But MetroPCS plans to launch a 4G network in the second half of 2010.

“Cellular operators are making less and less on voice,’’ said analyst Nogee. “They’re looking for new revenue streams.’’ But Nogee added that in a year or two, with so many 4G options available, wireless data service could become a lot cheaper for consumers.

Hiawatha Bray can be reached at bray@globe.com.

© Copyright 2009 Globe Newspaper Company.

What it's like to use the iPhone 3G on Verizon's network

Last week, when Apple introduced its new iPhone 3GS smartphone, it highlighted by omission what many feel is the product's weakest link - that, in the U.S., it's only available on the AT&T network.

When Apple listed the providers who'd be offering tethering and multimedia messaging when the phone is available on Friday, AT&T was noticeably absent. In fact, when the wireless provider was mentioned during the Apple Worldwide Developer Conference keynote, the audience reaction ranged from snickering to outright boos.

Indeed, AT&T is the ubiquitous wireless provider you love to hate. iPhone users complain its data network is slow and congested, that its voice service drops calls frequently, and that its 3G coverage is too limited. As I've written before, I hear all the time from people who wish they could use the iPhone on Verizon, which has a reputation for a speedy, reliable and extensive data network.

Tales of an iPhone on Verizon's network have been around even before the phone was released. Tech legend has it that Apple initially approached Verizon to be the iPhone's exclusive provider, but the carrier turned its nose up at the new device.

So what would an iPhone on Verizon's network be like? Would it be as zippy and reliable at transferring data as iPhone fans hope?

I had a chance last week to find out. Verizon sent me a MiFi 2200, a device made by Novatel that combines a cellular modem with a Wi-Fi router. It connects to Verizon's 3G EVDO network in the same way as the air cards used with personal computers. It then allows up to 5 devices to connect to its 802.11g router. It's tiny - about 2.3-by-3.5 inches and less than half an inch thick - and easily fits in your pocket.

It's a nifty product, particularly for traveling. You can use it to provide everyone in a car with a Wi-Fi connection, turning your vehicle into a 70-mph hotspot.

And that's exactly what I did late last week. We drove to Missouri for my daughter's college orientation, and brought the MiFi along. I used it with my iPhone, and the results were very interesting.

In a major city such as Houston, I found the two networks performed about the same much of the time. AT&T's network could be noticeably slower at peak times, such as during rush hours. But on a Sunday night, when network traffic was light, the two networks performed similarly.

Here's a screen grab from the Speedtest iPhone app from Xtreme Labs. The results on the left are from AT&T; on the right, Verizon. This was typical of what I saw during off hours.

I didn't take screenshots during peak hours, but performance was often - but not always - noticeably slower on AT&T's network. Verizon's network was predictably fast almost all the time.

The major exception to that was in rural areas. On the way to Missouri, we passed through north Texas and eastern Oklahoma, where AT&T has no 3G, and sometimes even the older EDGE network was nowhere to be found. In some of these areas, Verizon's data network was MIA as well. The MiFi often connected to roaming networks (its power button turns blue to signal this) and data transfers then were as slow as on AT&T's EDGE network.

In other words, forget about smoking marijuana or taking trips on LSD. We don't do wireless broadband outside Muskogee, Okla., USA, either.

Of course, there are many variables here. Using the MiFi, I was going through a Wi-Fi connection to get to Verizon's network, but theoretically the 802.11g protocol has plenty of throughput to handle what's coming from the 3G modem. There could be interference for both Wi-Fi and 3G signals. The number of other users on either 3G network is also a variable.

But overall, performance was more reliable on Verizon's network with the iPhone going through Wi-Fi, than on AT&T's network talking directly to 3G.

Still, I don't think frustrated iPhone users can see a version of their phone on Verizon's network as a panacea. However, the coming of next-generation data networks -- and AT&T's plans to increase the speeds of its current 3G network -- hold out some hope for the future. In the meantime, iPhone users will just have to grit their teeth and bear it.

The MiFi, by the way, sells for $99 online, but requires a two-year service contract for a broadband connection that costs $60 a month with a 5-GB cap. If that's too rich for your blood, there's a $40 a month plan with a measly 250-MB cap. You can also buy it with no contract for $270 and pay $15 for individual day usage. None of those plans, frankly, are a good deal.

World’s Fastest Broadband at $20 Per Home

By Saul Hansell

If you get excited about the prospect of really, really fast broadband Internet service, here’s a statistic that will make heart race. Or your blood boil. Or both.

Pretty much the fastest consumer broadband in the world is the 160-megabit-per-second service offered by J:Com, the largest cable company in Japan. Here’s how much the company had to invest to upgrade its network to provide that speed: $20 per home passed.

The cable modem needed for that speed costs about $60, compared with about $30 for the current generation.

By contrast, Verizon is spending an average of $817 per home passed to wire neighborhoods for its FiOS fiber optic network and another $716 for equipment and labor in each home that subscribes, according to Sanford C. Bernstein & Company.

Those numbers from Japan came from Michael T. Fries, the chief executive of Liberty Global, the American company that operates J:Com.

His larger point: “To me, this just isn’t an expensive capital investment,” he said.

The experience in Japan suggests that the major cable systems in the United States might be able to increase the speed of their broadband service by five to 10 times right away. They might not need to charge much more for it than they do now and they’d still make as much money.

The cable industry here uses the same technology as J:Com. And several vendors said that while the prices Mr. Fries quoted were on the low side, most systems can be upgraded for no more than about $100 per home, including a new modem. Moreover, the monthly cost of bandwidth to connect a home to the Internet is minimal, executives say.

So what’s wrong with this picture in the United States? The cable companies, like Comcast and Cablevision, that are moving quickly to install the fast broadband technology, called Docsis 3, are charging as much as $140 a month for 50 Mbps service. Meanwhile other companies, like Time Warner Cable, are moving much more slowly to upgrade.

Competition, or the lack of it, goes a long way to explaining why the fees are higher in the United States. There is less competition in the United States than in many other countries. Broadband already has the highest profit margins of any product cable companies offer. Like any profit-maximizing business would do, they set prices in relation to other providers and market demand rather than based on costs.

Pricing at Liberty varies widely by market. In Japan, its 160 Mbps service costs 6,000 yen ($60) per month. That’s only $5 a month more than the price of its basic 30 Mbps service. In the Netherlands, meanwhile, it charges 80 euros ($107) for 120 Mbps service and 60 euros ($81) for 60 Mbps. Mr. Fries said that he expected these prices would fall over time.

“Our margins go up,” he said. “But we are delivering more value.”

Cable executives have given several reasons for why many cable systems in the United States are going very slowly in upgrading to Docsis 3. There’s little competition in areas not served by Verizon’s FiOS system, which soon will offer 50 Mbps service. And some argue there isn’t that much demand for super-high speed.

Mr. Fries added another: Fear. Other cable operators, he said, are concerned that not only will prices fall, but that the super-fast service will encourage customers to watch video on the Web and drop their cable service.

The industry is worried that by offering 100 Mbps, they are opening Pandora’s box, he said. Everyone will be able to get video on the Internet, and then competition will bring the price for the broadband down from $80 to $60 to $40.

Aren’t you worried that the prices will fall too? I asked.

“Maybe,” he said very slowly. “We’ll see how it happens. We want to keep it up there for now. It is a premium service.”