Verizon Wireless to open access to consumer's choice of handsets
Calling the move a "new paradigm for the entire wireless industry," Verizon Wireless CEO Lowell McAdam told reporters this morning the entire CDMA and PCS spectrum of his cellular network will open access to the customer's choice of handset equipment.
As McAdam explained, the company will be providing the full technical specifications for access to its network, as an open document, early in 2008. Manufacturers will be given the opportunity to bring their devices up to speed, and VW will institute a testing process for hardware, apparently whose manufacturers are interested in meeting those specifications. There will be no preference applied to which hardware gets tested.
Once a device is approved, Verizon Wireless will accept any customer who owns that device and who seeks connection to its CDMA or PCS network. The company appears willing to extend open access to more networks, including its 4G networks, in the future; and its executives said they'd be willing to accept customers with different kinds of handsets, including gaming devices and application-specific mobile devices.
Chief Technology Officer Dick Lynch said he did not see any reason why any device at all that meets the company's new open interface standards, could not be integrated into the company's base of clients.
However, CEO Lowell McAdam told BetaNews this morning that the Apple iPhone would not be among those devices currently portable, since it is a GSM device that is incompatible with the company's CDMA network.
For more: Verizon Wireless' open access move: The historic details