Verizon

Updated at 7:25 a.m. PDT Friday.*

Vonage said Thursday it had resolved an ongoing patent dispute with Verizon Communications at a price tag of up to $120 million, ending what has been a mostly gloomy saga for the struggling Internet phone company.

The announcement comes about a month after New Jersey-based Vonage, which has yet to turn a profit, lost the bulk of an appeal regarding three voice over Internet protocol patents held by the nation's second largest telephone company.

The appeals court upheld a jury finding that Vonage had infringed on two patents that are arguably … Read more

It's long been an open secret that many major telecommunications companies, including Internet service providers (ISPs) and cellular data providers, impose specific limits on the volume and type of bandwidth consumed by their customers.

"Open" in the sense that these companies almost universally reserve the right to impose such limits, and occasionally make public statements defending their right to do so. "Secret" because the companies rarely reveal their specific limits, and because it seems like these limits are constantly being rediscovered by people who ought to know better.

It reminds me of people who claim … Read more

Verizon Wireless' court fight against new federal rules that require "open access" on some forthcoming wireless networks appears to be no more.

The No. 2 U.S. wireless carrier on Tuesday filed for "voluntary dismissal" of its September petition with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, according to the court docket. The filing for dismissal was reported earlier Wednesday by Dow Jones/Associated Press.

At issue are Federal Communications Commission rules for an upcoming auction of 700MHz wireless spectrum, also known as the analog television band. That band is scheduled to … Read more

CTIA Fall 2007 isn't really the place for most cell phone manufacturers to announce new devices; in fact, many companies come here to reannounce devices that have already been, well, announced. That's how it is for the UTStarcom Coupe from Verizon Wireless, that back-to-basics emergency phone that we reviewed a month or so ago. UTStarcom has released a press release announcing that they're launching the phone today, even though it was out a while ago. As we said back then, the UTStarcom 8630 is a phone made for the elderly or older adults; it has a clear … Read more

Though Verizon Wireless isn't announcing the LG Venus and Voyager at CTIA, the cell phones are making guest appearances. I got a few minutes to play with both handsets, the first time I've seen them in the flesh, and I all I can say is, "wow." Both the Venus and Voyager sport throughly lovely designs that will do a lot to bring more style to the formerly stodgy Verizon. Yes, they're a bit on the hefty side, but they back up their bulk with sleek and shiny profiles.

As an update the the LG enV, … Read more

The Samsung Juke has one of the most unique designs we've seen on a cell phone. With its skinny dimensions and swivel design, the Juke swings open almost like a switchblade. Though we like its spun-metal mechanical scroll wheel, we're not too thrilled by the slick keypad and the Juke's poor feature set. Yes, the Juke does come with a built-in music player and a simple VGA camera, but unlike a lot of other Verizon music phones, the Juke does not come with EV-DO or, most importantly, access to V Cast Music. Sure, you can just upload … Read more