"Untethered" Versus "Mobile" Apps, Devices, Access

Mobile or remote collaboration once was a matter of users communicating using enterprise-approved smart phones and PCs, with a couple of key applications. 

These days, non-standard devices including tablets, over-the-top and non-authorized applications now are quite common. A mobile worker's toolkit includes a combination of smartphones, tablets, laptops, netbooks, corporate devices and a bunch of applications.

True mobility is the ability to work from anywhere over any device and then be able to switch them when the user wants. This breaks the link between "wireless" and "mobility," Cisco tends to argue. In other words, there is a difference between "untethered" communications and collaboration, and "mobile" collaboration. 

Workers at a desk might start a video on a tablet and then move to the PC or move other content around between devices. Some of that activity might use or require a "mobile" device, connected to a mobile service provider's network. In other cases, Wi-Fi connections are sufficient. Most people, most of the time, prefer untethered or cordless devices, even when an access connection uses the fixed network. Collaboration in a Post-PC World


Much the same situation prevails in the consumer market as well. Most of the devices consumers now use, or will use increasingly in the future, can use Wi-Fi, which means the dominant connectivity requirement for a consumer is the fixed broadband connection, with wireless "tails" inside the house. 


In fact, given the growing use of mobile devices to consume content, most consumers will benefit from switching even their mobile phones to Wi-Fi connections when at home. 

That provides one obvious clue about the future value of the fixed network. Though mobile broadband and voice might be sufficient for many people, much of the time, the value-price relationship will, in all likelihood, "always" favor untethered use of the fixed network.

Untethered device ownership

Wireless Now Driving Broadband Business

It sometimes is hard to keep up with all the changes occurring in the communications business.

"In 2004, Wi-Fi was embryonic, the Motorola Razr was the hot phone, the BlackBerry was
a CEO’s email device, and Apple's most recognizable product was an orange-sicle laptop," says Bret Swanson, president of  Entropy Economics LLC.

The point is that Internet innovation hardly has been a problem, and Swanson is not convinced creating new rules about "packet neutrality" actually would have a neutral impact on potential for further innovation on the facilities side of the Internet business.

But one of the sometimes unnoticed changes is the huge role wireless now plays in the broadband access business. In fact, by some measures wireless now accounts for the majority of bandwidth consumed by U.S. consumers, for example. Not surprisingly, that suggests wireless bandwidth is where key growth will occur over the coming decade as well.

"Wireless carriers invested $100 billion in just the past three years, and the United States vaulted past Europe in fast 3G mobile networks," he says. "Americans enjoy mobile voice prices 60 percent cheaper than foreign peers."

"And the once closed mobile ecosystem is more open, modular and dynamic than ever," he adds. "We estimate that between 2000 and 2008, total U.S. consumer bandwidth grew from just 7.9 terabits per second to 717 terabits per second."

"On a per capita basis, consumer bandwidth grew to almost 3 megabits per second in 2009 from just 28 kilobits per second in 2000," says Swanson.

Between 2000 and 2008, total residential bandwidth grew 54 times; total wireless bandwidth grew 542 times; total consumer bandwidth grew 91 times; residential bandwidth per capita grew 50 times; wireless bandwidth per capita grew 499 times and total consumer bandwidth per capita grew 84 times, for a compound annual growth rate of 74 percent.

Swanson estimates U.S. Internet traffic will continue to rise 50 percent annually through 2015. Cisco estimates wireless data traffic will rise 131 percent per year through 2013. That means hundreds of billions of dollars of new investment will be required.

So the question must be asked: "if network service providers can't design their own networks, offer creative services, or make fair business transactions with vendors, will they invest these massive sums to meet (and drive) demand?" Swanson rhetorically asks.

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CTIA Reports Gains, As It Always Does

Almost nothing is more predictable than the CTIA reporting that revenues, subscribers and wireless data increased over the last six-month period. In fact, many of us cannot remember a six-month period where that has not happened. So it is that the CTIA says wireless data service revenues increased 25.7 percent from the last half of 2008 to reach more than $22 billion for the last half of 2009, CTIA-The Wireless Association says.
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Wireless data revenues now represent more than 28 percent of all wireless service revenues. The number of data-capable devices has grown to 257 million units, up from 228 million at the end of 2008.

About 50 million of these devices are smart phones or wireless-enabled PDAs and nearly 12 million are wireless-enabled laptops, notebooks or aircards.

More than 822 billion text messages sent and received on carriers’ networks during the last half of 2009, amounting to almost five billion messages per day at the end of the year.

As of December 2009, the industry survey recorded more than 285 million wireless connections. This represents a year-over-year increase of more than 15 million.

Also, wireless penetration is now equal to more than 91 percent of the U.S. population, CTIA says.

Other highlights of the survey include wireless customers using more than 1.12 trillion minutes in the last half of 2009, up 38 billion from the last half of 2008—and breaking down to 6.1 billion minutes-of-use per day. Wireless service revenues for the last half of 2009 amounted to almost $77 billion—up from a little more than $75 billion in the last half of 2008.

U.S. Wireless Business Twice the Size of Wireline in 5 Years

In five years, the U.S. wireless business will be more than twice the size of the entire landline services business, say researchers at Insight Research Corp.

Keep in mind that the U.S. wireless and wired network businesses were roughly equivalent revenue producers in 2009.

That is but one example of a profound change in the telecommunications business globally, where wireless already has emerged as the key telecommunications service, with wireless accounts outnumbering wireline voice lines by a four-to-one margin.

In 2000 there were 738 million global mobile subscribers. In 2010, there are 4.3 billion mobile subscribers. In other words, mobile users have doubled twice in just 10 years.

It took just four years to double the number of global mobility users, from 2000 to 2004, and just another four years to double yet again, from 2004 to 2008.

All U.S. landline communications spending stood at $161.4 billion at the end of 2009 and will grow slowly to $165.7 billion by the end of 2014, representing a negligible compound annual growth rate of 0.5 percent.

Total U.S. wireless spending stood at $160.3 billion in 2009. But wireless revenue will grow at an 18.4 percent annual rate between 2010 and 2014, reaching $373.2 billion in 2014.

It now appears 2000 was the year U.S. wired voice accounts hit their peak, as they have been steadily declining ever since.

It is a truism that new technologies cause far less change in the early going than observers predict, but also cause more change than expected once the changes really take hold. It is a related truism that tipping points occur with great suddenness. Long periods of gestation, where each year appears to be much like the next, suddenly erupt, with acute changes unexpectedly obvious.

It appears the U.S. communications industry is about to hit one of those important inflection points, where a new pattern suddenly is obvious.

Canada's Telecom Market Faces Deregulation

Canada's telecom market looks to  be on the cusp of a major wave of market restructuring as national government authorities now appear committed to liberalizing the Canadian telecom market by allowing investment by foreign interests above the current 46 percent cap on foreign investment in any Canadian provider.

That could potentially allow majority control by foreign investors. Observers say that if the liberalization moves succeed, it likely will drive a major wave of consolidation among Canadian providers, driven in part by the need to bulk up in advance of an expected wave of new entrants, many of whom will have significant resources.

The Canadian telecom business is about a $40 billion a year business and only recently allowed Egyptian-backed Globalive Communications Corp. into the mobility market.

Some speculate that any new rules would cap such control to firms controlling about 10 percent of the total Canadian market. One logically would expect the major interest to be in wireless assets, as wireless is the segment of the business with the strongest growth prospects.

Canada's leading service providers, such as Rogers Communications, BCE and Telus have criticized the Globalive decision.

Some financial analysts are not so sure there will be too much interest, though. "Even if foreign ownership restrictions were lifted today, we do not see much foreign strategic interest in Canadian incumbents," says Dvai Ghose, Genuity Capital Markets analyst.

AT&T, Verizon and Comcast still seem focused on domestic operations. In addition, Canadian telcos and cable companies currently trade at significant premiums to U.S. and European peers.

Still, mobile challengers are likely to attract some interest. That likely means more cap[ital will be available for mobile upstarts Wind, Public Mobile and Dave. Incumbents are likely to consider mergers as a defensive move, says Jeff Fan of Scotia Capital.

"We believe opening the doors to foreign investment in Canada will benefit the new wireless entrants in the near term by providing them with greater access to capital and allowing them to simplify their business structures," says  Phillip Huang, UBS Securities Canada analyst.

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Good News for VoIP, Bad News for Wired Telecom Providers

"VoIP" was the "industry of the decade," according to IBISWorld, which says the industry earned that accolade because of its 1,655 percent growth rate between 2000 and 2009. IBISWorld notes that VoIP, as a new industry, only began to earn any revenue in 2002, so it is starting from a "zero" base.

Wireless telecommunications ranked eighth for industries of the 2000 to 2009 period, posting revenue growth of 183 percent.

IBISWorld also predicts VoIP will show the most revenue growth in the coming decade as well, growing 150 percent between 2010 and 2019.

The bad news for the 2010 to 2019 period is that wired telecommunicatons carriers will show negative 52 percent revenue growth. Telecommunications resellers likewise will show negative 26 percent revenue growth over that same period.

Verizon Introduces Quad Play Bundles

Verizon customers in Northeast and Mid-Atlantic markets now can buy quadruple-play packages of wireless, TV, Internet access and home phone service in configurations costing as little as $135 a month with a one-year contract, for FiOS locations. Customers served by digital subscriber line service can get packages as low as $125 a month.

The basic Verizon quad-play FiOS bundle consists of the national Verizon Wireless calling plan of 450 minutes, "Freedom Essentials" voice service, FiOS Internet service with 15 Mbps downstream, 5 Mbps upstream connection speeds and FiOS TV "Essentials" service.

For customers served by Verizon's copper network, the lead quad-play bundle consists of the national Verizon Wireless calling plan of 450 minutes, a "Freedom Essentials" calling plan, broadband access with downstream connection of up to 3 Mbps and the DirectTV Plus DVR package.  A one-year Verizon commitment and a two-year DirectTV commitment with hardware lease are required with these bundles.

With four services all on one bill, qualifying quad-play customers will save from $59 to $179 a  year, depending upon which bundle they order.

New customers who sign up by Jan. 16, 2010 for FiOS quad-play or triple-play bundles that include broadband and TV also will receive a $150 Visa prepaid card. New customers who subscribe to quad-play or triple-play bundles that include Verizon Freedom Essentials, Verizon broadband access with an up-to-3 Mbps or 7 Mbps speed, and DIRECTV service will receive three months of free broadband access service.

Peer-to-peer Wi-Fi: Bluetooth Killer?

A new peer-to-peer Wi-Fi specification sponsored by the Wi-Fi Alliance will enable Wi-Fi devices to connect to one another directly without joining a traditional home, office, or hotspot network. 

The Wi-Fi Alliance expects to begin certification for this new specification in mid-2010 and products which achieve the certification will be designated "Wi-Fi CERTIFIED Wi-Fi Direct."

The specification can be implemented in any Wi-Fi device, from mobile phones, cameras, printers, and notebook computers, to human interface devices such as keyboards and headphones. 

Significantly, devices that have been certified to the new specification will also be able to create connections with hundreds of millions of Wi-Fi CERTIFIED legacy devices already in use. 

Devices will be able to make a one-to-one connection, or a group of several devices can connect simultaneously.

The specification targets both consumer electronics and enterprise applications, provides management features for enterprise environments, and includes WPA2 security. Devices that support the specification will be able to discover one another and advertise available services.  

Wi-Fi CERTIFIED Wi-Fi Direct devices will support typical Wi-Fi ranges and the same data rates as can be achieved with an infrastructure connection, so devices can connect from across a home or office and conduct bandwidth-hungry tasks with ease.   

Though some might fear the specification will damage sales of Wi-Fi access points, the new P2P networking technique seems more a threat to near-field standards such as Bluetooth. For some applications, such as file sharing, the extended Wi-Fi range will make it a better option than Bluetooth for public near-field communications, for example. 

Such proximity marketing techniques sometimes are used to allow users to interact with electronic billboards, for example. P2P Wi-Fi ought to be easier to use, and also will have greater range. 

U.S. Wireless Data Hits New High

Wireless data service revenues climbed to more than $19.4 billion for the first half of 2009, CTIA-The Wireless Association says. This represents a 31 percent increase over the first half of 2008. In addition, wireless data revenues were more than 25 percent of all wireless service revenues.

The survey also found that more than 246 million data-capable devices are in use, while more than 40 million of these devices are Ssmartphones or wireless-enabled PDAs. More than 10 million are wireless-enabled laptops, notebooks or aircards.

More than 740 billion text messages carried on carriers’ networks during the first half of 2009, roughly 4.1 billion messages per day. That’s nearly double the number from last year, when only 385 billion text messages were reported for the first half of 2008.

Wireless subscribers are also sending more pictures and other multi-media messages with their mobile devices—more than 10.3 billion MMS messages were reported for the first half of 2009, up from 4.7 billion in mid-year 2008.

As of June 2009, the industry survey recorded more than 276 million wireless users. This represents a year-over-year increase of nearly 14 million subscribers.

Wireless customers used more than 1.1 trillion minutes in the first half of 2009—breaking down to 6.4 billion minutes-of-use per day—and six-month wireless service revenues of nearly $76 billion.

Does Net Neutrality Posse Credit Risk for U.S. Wireless Providers?

While there is still uncertainty around potential new rules regarding net neutrality and its impact on wireless operators, Fitch Ratings does not believe potential regulatory changes will materially affect the credit profiles of wireless companies over the longer term.

Fitch does believe the controversial plans outlined by the FCC chairman could face process delays and potential legal challenges once there is clarity about the proposed rules. In other words, there will be no clarity for some time after promulgation of new rules.

In Fitch's opinion, the competitive environment would have likely dictated that the wireless industry naturally evolve in this direction but the conditions and rules currently contemplated by the FCC will likely accelerate the pace at which this transition occurs and place more definitive regulatory restrictions on wireless operators.

Consequently, carriers will likely need to adapt access plans to mitigate the impact that devices with more data intensive applications could have on network quality.

Since nearly all markets experience lower demand when prices are raised, it is likely that access pricing will evolve in ways that generally  match consumption to usage, though that does not have to take the form of strict metering of usage, but more likely will take the form of buckets of use, one would suspect.

Fitch also believes that 4G networks offer the potential to generate additional revenue from several new sources like machine-to-machine applications which could more than offset pressure from further erosion of voice related average revenue per user.

From a credit perspective, Fitch believes the dominant market share, higher margins, strong free cash flow, and robust spectrum portfolios of Verizon Wireless and AT&T Wireless strongly position the companies to capture additional share and future market growth opportunities, at least partially offsetting structural changes that could pressure certain revenue and cash flow streams.

However, the market strength of Verizon and AT&T has implications for the remaining national, regional and niche wireless operators, which will likely face increasing credit risk as the wireless industry evolves to 4G and the competitive market intensifies for certain products and services.

Mobile Web Use Explodes

As is always the case, the highest growth rates for any product or service come when growth starts at a low base. And that seems to be the case for mobile Web usage, which over the last year has grown faster among users 65 years old, or older.

Over the last year, users 65 or older adopted mobile Web behaviors at a 67 percent rate.

The other trend of note is rapid growth at the other end of the demographic scale. Users between 13 and 17 increased their mobile Web usage by 45 percent. That means teens are buying smart phones, or having smart phones bought for them.

Wireless Net Neutrality Will Spur Mobile VoIP

This forecast of mobile VoIP, like most forecasts, probably needs to be pushed out "to the right," but is one concrete example of what is likely to happen if the Federal Communications Commission does manage to push through rules applying wired network application non-discrimination rules to the wireless realm.

The first thing that will happen is an immediate increase in marketing of mobile VoIP apps.

Carriers, of course, can react in ways to shape adoption. For many users, lower calling prices would dampen interest in VoIP over mobile services.

Carriers also would have incentive to create their own mobile VoIP offerings, and that might offer them a way to boost data plan sales as well.

The most immediate impact of any new wireless non-discrimination rules will be to hasten the day when voice no longer is the key revenue driver for mobile operators. Mobility executives are anything but dumb. They know that day is coming. They just aren't in any hurry to see it.

Study Finds Frustration with Mobile Contracts

The biggest cell phone service frustration in the United States is the length of service contracts, a new study by the Brookings Institution finds. About 46 percent of those polled say contracts are among the biggest frustrations.

What is not clear is how much users are willing to pay for handsets in order to retain freedom to switch providers, though.

Roaming charges are an irritant for 20.4 percent of respondents. Other issues that rank among the biggist irritants are the cost of domestic calls, which bothers18.1 percent of respondents, while "lack of features" is an issue for 15.2 percent or those polled.

The inability to use devices on other provider networks concerns 14.8 percent of respondents while lack of interoperability is an issue for 12 percent of survey subjects.

Americans believe (correctly or not) that innovation is driven by new devices made by Apple and Nokia, and new Internet features pioneered by Google. The most popular new cell phone features are games (named by 61.6 percent), local directories (52.9 percent), music (49.8 percent), and chat and instant messaging (39.8 percent).

Consumer concerns are different in other countries where consumers also were polled.

In the United Kingdom, the biggest frustration is the cost of international calls (27.8 percent), followed by the cost of domestic calls (25 percent), the length of service contracts (22.7 percent), and roaming charges (22.3 percent).

For Spaniards, the greatest frustration is the length of service contract (41.1 percent), cost of domestic calls (40.1 percent), roaming charges (25.6 percent), inability to transfer devices (22.8 percent), and the cost of international calls (21.6 percent).

In Japan, the largest problems are the cost of domestic calls (32.3 percent), lack of features (18 percent), lack of interoperability (15.4 percent), length of service contract (14.4 percent), and the slow pace of innovation (14.4 percent).

Pollsters asked cell phone consumers in each country about their willingness to pay more money in order to control their cell phone applications. The country with the greatest willingness to pay more is Spain (50 percent), followed by the United Kingdom (35.7 percent), United States (32.9 percent), and Japan (17.2 percent).

American consumers were most likely to believe innovation came from new devices (32.7 percent), followed by new Internet-based services (28.6 percent), and new voice services (10.4 percent). Those beliefs may not completely align with the innovation process, but do illustrate the sense consumers have that new devices are key for innovation.

To the extent that rapid device turnover actually is directly related to introduction of new services, policymakers would do well to consider how any new mobile regulations might affect the rate and pace of new device propagation.

When asked what was most important to improve their use of cell phones, users named getting less expensive service from mobile carriers (55.5 percent) as their top item.

Business PCs: 43% Mobile by 2012, Study Says

A Microsoft-commissioned study conducted by Forrester Research suggests that worker mobility and office decentralization will become key issues for the enterprise and small- to medium-sized businesses in coming years, as worker mobility increases.

The report, "The Costs and Challenges Associated With Supporting Today's Informational Workers," suggests that mobile PCs will constitute some 43 percent of corporate PCs by 2012, an 11 percent increase over the current situation. That also suggests the number of desktop PCs will decline to 57 percent in three years’ time, down from 68 percent today.

Other parts of the study found that workers within the enterprise and SMBs have become increasingly decentralized, with 29 percent working out of branch or remote offices, five percent out of external worksites, four percent out of home offices, and six percent “mostly mobile.”

The report found that only 30 percent of firms were highly centralized in “one or a few offices,” though that number was expected to increase marginally to 34 percent by 2012.

MetroPCS to Offer 4G in 2010: Consumers Win

MetroPCS Communications, a leading provider of unlimited prepaid wireless communications service will launch Long Term Evolution 4G mobile broadband services in the second half of 2010. Ericsson will provide infrastructure while Samsung Telecommunications America will provide the company's initial LTE handsets.

The network upgrade likely will have wider implications for consumers using other service providers as well, as MetroPCS likely will offer more affordable mobile broadband prices and packaging than have been available to date, from tier one and other providers.

As MetroPCS has made a market largely on users who are substituting mobile service for landline, one suspects the firm might be tempted to try the same thing for broadband access.

As MetroPCS uses the CDMA air interface for voice and text services, it will introduce dual-mode LTE/CDMA devices as part of the plan.

MetroPCS has been a price leader in the prepaid space, and the new capabilities likely will put pressure on the tier one carriers to lower their mobile broadband tariffs further.

One wonders whether the tier one providers might not also, as part of that shift, create differentiated mobile broadband tiers that are quite a bit more "application specific," or at least tailored in key ways to the usage profiles different users have.

Business users have different requirements in the reliability area than casual consumer users. Heavy users of mobile video will require more bandwidth, but might also be offered heavy-usage plans at a higher price.

The challenge is to balance simplicity with consumption. The problem right now is that few mobile users have any idea how much bandwidth they consume and for which applications. That means consumers will have a hard time figuring out which plans they ought to buy.

Providers, on the other hand, might need to work on their billing and operations processes so they can flexibly track usage, make that information available to end users, and then create differentiated plans tailored to actual end user behavior.

It isn't yet clear what packaging innovations MetroPCS might be willing to introduce. But it has long positioned itself in several clear market segments, including users who can replace wired telephone service with a mobile, especially users with low needs for mobile support outside of the home market.

Its mobile broadband efforts are likely to build on that profile.

Potential Impact of "Wireless Only" Packaging

It's too early to say whether Sprint Nextel's new "Any Mobile, Anytime" program will revolutionize mobile market packaging and pricing the way AT&T's "Digital One Rate" did in abolishing the distinction between local and long distance calling in the broader mobile business.

It's too early to say whether a rumored or possible merger between T-Mobile USA and Sprint Nextel will occur, creating a strong third carrier to challenge AT&T and Verizon Wireless.

Likewise, it is too early to know whether a strong "wireless-only" carrier can compete effectively against integrated carriers with wireline and wireless assets.

But there are glimmers. Sprint Nextel's new "call any U.S. mobile, in the United States, for one flat fee essentially merchandises voice services to secure new data plan revenues. The new plan attempts to capitalize on the growing population of mobile numbers, the growing number of users who only use mobiles and who also value Web services and mobile access to those services.

The new plan also provides a direct incentive for mobile users to call other mobile numbers as opposed to landline numbers that might reach the same called party.

For some segment of the buying public, the new plan might also nudge some customers away from prepaid wireless, especially those who like the idea of a fixed monthly payment and also want access to many of the latest handsets, something prepaid plans do not offer.

Under the new plan, the potential incremental cost of a Sprint Nextel postpaid calling plan and an unlimited prepaid plan is about $20 a month.

The problem for most potential buyers is that most users probably do not have a good understanding of what percentage, and what number, of monthly calls actually terminate on wireless numbers. That understanding is helpful as the $70 data plan Sprint Nextel offers comes with 450 landline minutes. If half of any given user's calls are terminated on mobiles, that is equivalent to a standard calling bucket of about 900 minutes.

Taken as a whole, Sprint Nextel's marketing initiatives will tend to push consumers in the "wireless only" direction. A potential merger with T-Mobile would create a huge new company with a vested interest in pushing such initiatives even further.

Clearwire Offers 50% Off Promotion in September

Clearwire is offering a September promotion providing six months of service at 50 percent off on its entry-level unlimited usage plan, selling for $22.50 during the promotional period.

One normally expects pricing innovations of this sort from new entrants in a market, or competitors seeking to grow their market share rapidly. Clearwire already offers casual use pricing that is akin to casual Wi-Fi hot spot pricing.

One wonders how much more innovation Clearwire is thinking about, aside from temporary price promotions.

71% of Wireless Users Watch Video, 19% Have Uploaded Video

You likely would not be shocked to learn that 62 percent of Internet users watch online video. But you might be surprised to learn that wireless connectivity has emerged as a strong predictor of online video viewing.

Fully 71 percent of users with wireless connectivity watch videos on video sharing sites compared with just 38 percent of those who do not access the Internet wirelessly.

"Our latest data shows that 14 percent of cell phone users have watched video on their devices, slightly up from the 10 percent we found in 2007, Pew Internet & American Life researchers say.

Cell phone users are more likely to record video on their cell phones than they are to watch it, Pew researchers say. About 19 percent of cell phone users now say they have recorded video with their phone, in addition to watching video.

If you wonder why mobile service providers are racing to add bandwidth, that's why: video consumption and video creation.

Many users are turning to the Internet to watch entire television shows and movies, as you also might have guessed. Overall, 35 percent of adult Internet users say they have watched television shows and movies online.

Verizon Wireless to Voluntarily Limit Exclusive Handset Deals

In a wise and fairly clear attempt to head off more regulations, Verizon Wireless now says it will allow small wireless carriers to use its popular and "exclusive" handset models after six months. Smaller wireless providers have been complaining that exclusive handset deals represent unfair competition.

"Any new exclusively arrangement we enter with handset makers will last no longer than six months, for all manufacturers and all devices," Verizon Wireless CEO Lowell McAdam has told key Congressional lawmakers.

Some consumer advocates also object to handset bundling, for similar reasons. But some economists have pointed out that bundling promotes competition and innvoation, as it provides incentive to introduce new features and models. "Exclusivity arrangements promote competition and innovation in device development and design," McAdam says. "This new approach is fair to all sides."

It isn't immediately clear whether the new policy also applies to wholesale customers.

Verizon Wireless Reduces Overage Charges

Verizon Wireless has increased the data allowance for all mobile broadband customers on its lowest priced monthly plan and also has reduced overage pricing on the standard plan.

Users of the $39.99 monthly access plan used to have a cap of 50 Mbytes with an overage charge of 25 cents per megabyte. The new plan includes a 250 MByte monthly allowance and 10 cents per megabyte overage.

Users of the $59.99 monthly access plan have an unchanged 5 GByte monthly allowance and five cents per megabyte overage charges, compared to the older overage charge of 25 cents per megabyte.