Disruptive Telephony

Given my ongoing interest in potentially using Verizon for a wireless data provider, it was interesting to see Verizon's announcement that they will now allow 'month-to-month' contracts. I called the media contact on the news release and verified that this does also apply to wireless data plans, which is my personal interest. I can't seem to find that information yet on the Verizon Wireless web site, but perhaps these plans have not yet made their way to Keene, NH.

Now, being an advocate for a more "open" mobile Internet, I was pleased to see this:

Verizon Wireless’ new Month-to-Month agreement gives customers the freedom to purchase new devices at full-retail price, or use their own CDMA devices without the commitment of a one- or two-year contract. Additionally customers can terminate their agreement at the end of any month without paying an Early Termination Fee.

Not the "full-retail price", naturally, but the ability to simply end the agreement at the end of the month and to use any CDMA device.

The caveat to the ability to "bring your own phone" is that while it is good to see from a "freedom/choice" point-of-view, the reality is that really the only CDMA carriers in North America are Sprint and Verizon so the odds are that you have bought your phone from one or the other. I suppose this does make it so that Sprint users can easily move over to Verizon's network. Will this also encourage a market for third-party CDMA handsets? It will be interesting to see.

In the end, any steps that give consumers/users more choice of endpoints and the freedom to move carriers is, to me, a good thing and so it's great to see this move by Verizon.

Technorati Tags: verizon, cdma, sprint, wireless, mobility