Verizon One, Competition Zero

Verizon is rolling out an all-in-one voice, data, and video center for the home riding on top of Verizon's FiOS service, though it looks like the first generation of the device will not have the planned Ethernet and Wi-Fi capabilities Verizon wants to add. The Verizon One makes VoIP phone calls, supports email access, limited Web searches, calendar functions and streaming audio as well as preview of digital camera images. "Limited" Web access means specific Verizon-approved content in the news, weather and movie listings areas are available.

The cordless phone available as part of the unit is a bit clunky looking, but will support Verizon's VoiceWing VoIP service, slated to be added to the FiOS bundle later this year. The Verizon One also runs Media Manager, the FiOS application that manages and routes all of a user's multmedia content to networked TVs, set-top boxes, and PCs. Hence the importance of Wi-Fi and Ethernet capabilities. The base unit apparently supports as many as five total handsets.

Presumably when the Ethernet capable units are available, users will be able to access any content on the Web. Multiple USB ports will be added to accommodate the peripheral devices. Verizon One can be located any place in the customer's home where there is access to a phone jack and an electrical outlet.

It's an interesting approach to creating a next-generation "phone" device. Some people won't like the look and feel of the cordless phone. And one would hope the walled garden content experience was intended as a way to simplify experience of the unit, not extract money from content suppliers. That said, Verizon will be climbing a wall of resistance for the device, since every other attempt to put a PC-style screen into "kitchen" areas in the home has flopped. I don't recall a combined "phone plus Web" unit, however. And we really won't know what demand might be until the full Ethernet and Wi-Fi version of the device is available.

Still, credit to Verizon for trying something new. The device might be attractive for quick searches as one is running out the door and doesn't have time to boot up a PC to grab information from the Web. In these "greener" days many users are powering down their machines when not in active use to cut carbon, so quick and simple information searches might be attractive. That at least has always been the theory about how a simple Internet access device could fit into a user's lifestyle.