CTIA: Verizon calls for more devices and fewer OSs

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CTIA: Verizon calls for more devices and fewer OSs

By CAROLINE GABRIEL

Published: 2 April, 2009

READ MORE: Verizon

Verizon Wireless, like its co-owner Vodafone, is expert at using its trade show keynote spots to put pressure on the vendor community and set out the wishlist for large cellcos. At CTIA Wireless this year, top of this list were unified software platforms and a host of new devices to run off its mobile broadband networks.

Echoing similar calls from AT&T and T-Mobile USA, Verizon Wireless' CEO Lowell McAdam said the carrier needed to reduce the "eight or nine" operating systems it had to support to "three or four", with a unified development environment on top. He did not pick out any particular OS, but was less positive about Mobile Linux variants than rivals like T-Mobile.

"I don't think I need to bet on an operating system,"he said. "I need to bet on layers that will bridge those operating systems." Although Verizon Wireless had previously seemed keen to make LiMO a preferred OS, McAdam denied any one system would have special status. "We will not be in a position where we shun one operating system in favor over another operating system," he said. "We want to see what works well over time." Currently Verizon supports PalmOS, Windows Mobile, BlackBerry and many lower end OSs, has plans for LiMO, and possibly Android and (on LTE) Symbian. T-Mobile is backing Android heavily, Sprint may do the same, and AT&T has hinted that it is interested in basing its midrange platforms on Symbian.

Verizon Wireless had earlier done its bit for the unified software push by joining with Vodafone, China Mobile and Softbank to form the Joint Innovation Lab, to create a harmonized widgets-based platform.

Verizon Communications' CEO Ivan Seidenberg also took to the stage, and his theme was increasing wireless penetration and Verizon's revenue streams and account control - by going well beyond handsets and supporting a huge range of devices with embedded wireless and a host of applications. This could lead, on a powerful network like Verizon's planned LTE system, to "500% penetration".

He added: "There will be no limit on the number of connections as part of the mobile grid. Everything has the potential to be connected to the web" - provided there are broadband mobile networks and open platforms. So far, Verizon Wireless has certified 36 devices in its Open Development Lab, as it moves towards open access (mandated on its 700MHz spectrum) - and most of these are 'smart grid' gadgets like health monitors, not phones. "If we think in terms of the complex web of wireless connectivity that next generation technology will bring about, then the opportunity to explode past the 100% ceiling to 300%, 400%, or 500% is not only possible, it's probable," Seidenberg concluded.

Another key issue for Verizon is convergence, as its wireline business comes under pressure. So it put heavy emphasis on its Hub product, which offers connectivity through any broadband connection and supports unlimited VoIP calling for $35 per month, as well as integrating with Verizon Wireless services like VZ Navigator and VCast. This is an example of Verizon's move into non-traditional wireless devices and its attempt to support a quad play to compensate for landline displacement.

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