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Verizon’s Open Network Is A Gated Community

by Ronen Halevy on Jan 13th, 2009 at 2:27 pm EST
12 Comments »
 

verizonbouncer Awhile back Verizon’s announcement that they were going to open their network to other devices was met with quite a bit of skepticism. Turns out that it was justly deserved. Personally I don’t consider it that open if they have to certify every device… Its kind of like saying your club with a bouncer out front has an open door policy.

Its kind of sad to read the list of 29 devices that Verizon has certified so far. All of them are mostly business devices that will make no difference in your life. I guess this just gives Verizon a chance to get some good publicity by talking the open talk.

That’s all folks. Nothing to see here… Verizon will continue to be Verizon. UPDATE: Thanks to “The One” and Ben for correcting my misguided ideas about Verizon locking the GPS. Turns out it is a Google Maps bug that stops it from working.

via DSLReports via Techdirt

Thanks Tom for sending this one in!

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 13th, 2009 and is filed under News.
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12 Comments to “Verizon’s Open Network Is A Gated Community”

  1. Posted by: Ben Pike
    January 13, 2009 at 3:44 pm EST

    I dont get it?

    The 8330 has GPS and it’s unlocked (since 4.5) – same with the 8130.

  2. Posted by: Ronen Halevy
    January 13, 2009 at 3:46 pm EST

    Ever try google maps?

    • Posted by: The One
      January 13, 2009 at 3:49 pm EST

      Not sure what you mean Ronen, the Storm has full gps access, and google maps just doesn’t work with it, but I’ve tried at least 5 other programs that does work with it. Google has said they are making a compatible one to work with the Storm. So “They just had RIM take it out “? This is completely incorrect.

    • Posted by: Ben Pike
      January 13, 2009 at 3:51 pm EST

      Yeah, I have and I understand what you’re getting at, but my understanding is that – that’s a Google issue…

      I agree 100% that it should have never been locked down to begin with and that their new “Open” platform is nothing but a PR move… but to imply that GPS doesn’t exist is miss-leading. The 9530 (Storm), 8330 (Curve), & 8130 (Pearl) all have perfectly functioning GPS’s while (currently) only working with Blackberry Maps and VZNavigator – it still works.

      • Posted by: Ronen Halevy
        January 13, 2009 at 4:05 pm EST

        My bad. I guess I did not do enough research. Google Maps not working is actually Google’s fault. Due to the history I just assumed it was Verizon holding it back. Turns out that Google Maps first looks for AGPS and cant get a lock ever so gives up without trying the GPS.
        Will correct in the post

    • Posted by: Ronen Halevy
      January 13, 2009 at 4:09 pm EST

      Just to clear things up for me. Do all 3rd Party GPS/LBS applications work other than Google Maps? For example MyPoynt, Live Search, etc…

      • Posted by: The One
        January 13, 2009 at 4:19 pm EST

        @Ronen,

        Yes they do, except MyPoint, because they are also currently working on a Storm version. If anything doesn’t work yet, it’s not the storm’s fault. I have used blackberry maps, weatherbug with gps, Garmin, telenav, Nav4all, Blip, and a few others.

        • Posted by: sovak75
          January 13, 2009 at 5:26 pm EST

          If they don’t work it’s because they require ASSISTED GPS or don’t use true GPS at all. Anything that just uses or will work by just using the GPS chip work just fine now.

      • Posted by: Ben Pike
        January 13, 2009 at 4:28 pm EST

        on my 8130 (Pearl) BB Maps GPS works perfectly… as far as other applications? I haven’t had much luck. Not sure if that’s just a developer issue though…

  3. Posted by: sovak75
    January 13, 2009 at 5:24 pm EST

    5. Why does a device have to pass Verizon Wireless’ testing and comply with Verizon Wireless’ technical requirements?
    The testing is the only way to determine that the device, once activated, won’t harm or otherwise interfere with the Verizon Wireless network. The test process will be intentionally minimalistic for this purpose, so testing won’t determine if the device actually works or works without error. Additionally, the testing will not make any determination as to call quality or other functionality of such device.

    That sounds perfectly reasonable to me.

    • Posted by: Ronen Halevy
      January 13, 2009 at 5:27 pm EST

      Makes you wonder how GSM users just swap out SIM cards all over the world by millions of people…
      They almost make it sound like they are doing it for your own good.

      • Posted by: sovak75
        January 14, 2009 at 12:50 am EST

        well in a way they are, keeping the network running the way it should. AT&T’s network sucks, and it might be better if more of the devices on it were tested to make sure they did not harm the network *shrug*