At the beginning of the month, when speaking at Verizon event, CEO Lowell McAdam acknowledged that he was “happy” to see T-Mobile try something different with their UNcarrier approach to mobile service plans, a move in which they are attempting to eliminate 2-year contracts and phone subsidies. McAdam even went on to say that he would be open to something similar should customers ask for it. Well, Lowell, customers are asking. As I write this post, more than 85,000 of them have signed a petition at Change.org, asking Verizon to end contracts. 

We typically chuckle at petitions, as they tend to accomplish very little or target silly subjects, but the numbers associated with this one in particular are growing enough that it’s now on our radar. It has also now been promoted to the front page of Change.org as a petition to keep an eye on.

We should point out that this petition isn’t necessarily like the petition pushed through the Whitehouse that involved the unlocking of phones. Should this petition grow to 200,000 or 500,000 signatures, there is no guarantee that Verizon will even comment on it, let alone decide to make a change. But hey, there is nothing wrong with trying, banding together to get your voice heard, and seeing what can happen.

So if you’d like to join the ever-growing list of customers hoping to rid the world of wireless contracts, hit up the Change.org link below.

Via:  Change.org | CNET

Cheers EC8CH, Ty, Oscar, and Tyler!

Verizon CEO Gets What He Asked for, 85,000+ Customers Sign Petition to End Contracts is a post from: Droid Life

During a recent event, Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam, said that he likes it when something different is tried in the industry. Just last week,T-Mobile looked to shake up the mobile world by ridding of contracts and making customers now pay for a larger portion of a device upfront, while paying a somewhat lower monthly bill. Interestingly enough, McAdam says he is all for this idea, if customers actually ask for it. 

From what he states, changing to this platform would be easy, all it takes is people wanting it. He mentioned that he will be monitoring customer feedback about T-mo’s new plans and rates, then go from there. So, while T-Mobile spends who-knows-how-much to educate their potential customers on the new rate plans, Verizon will just sit back and wait to see what happens.

You want Verizon to make the switch?

Via: CNET

Cheers everyone who sent this in!

Verizon CEO Open to Eliminating Mobile Contracts, if Customers Ask For it is a post from: Droid Life

Verizon’s CEO, Lowell McAdam, sat down for a brief chat this morning at the UBS Global Media and Communications Conference. During the conversation, he talked about the entire status of the company, from Wireline to Wireless. Clearly, we care about his Wireless quotes, some of which show how far ahead Verizon thinks they are in terms of network and their new shared data plans. 

One quote in particular talks about others in the industry waiting to see with 4G LTE, while Big Red was willing to move forward with the technology from day 1. That early start gave them the massive lead in network coverage they have, today. But as one would expect from a company of this size, they aren’t stopping or planning to slow. In fact, while their competitors will eventually come close to matching their network in terms of coverage, McAdam thinks that the company will, by that time, be figuring out what “5G and 6G looks like.”

So even if someone catches up quote from a coverage perspective, you have got to catch up from a user experience perspective. And so we are going to hang on to that and we are going to defend that ground. And in the meantime, we are going to try to figure out what 5G and 6G looks like. So there is — it is not like — I know when you do your model you always like to think about okay this is the last evolution. Well, I hope I never see the last evolution in wireless technology. So I believe that we will.

Outside of network talk, McAdam also mentioned the adoption that they are seeing with their new Share Everything plans. As you all know, new customers are forced into these shared data plans, so when we hear talk of positive adoption, we don’t necessarily put a lot behind it. With that said, Verizon’s chief did mention a big bump on tablet connectivity through these shared plans, saying that people like the idea of adding on for $10, rather than having to fork out the $30 it used to run them.

Just over the holidays as an example, we saw a big tick up in tablet attachments. In the past people were buying them and saying I don’t want another account for this. I don’t want to have to pay for the unlimited data. I don’t know how much I am going to use it. I am just going to stick with Wi-Fi. And we saw a significant shift over Thanksgiving where people were saying just for the $10 access a month, I will go ahead and use that – use the share everything plan.

Nothing super juicy, but for those of you that are living and dying with Verizon, you have to love their confidence in the future of their network.

Via:  Verizon

Verizon CEO: While AT&T and Others are Playing Catch-up With LTE, We’ll be Figuring Out 5G and 6G is a post from: Droid Life

Family shared data plans could be here some time in 2012 according to Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam. Speaking at the UBS Global Media and Communications Conference this week, he mentioned that after 2 years of work toward account-level pricing, VZW is almost there. Customers who have multiple screens (phones, tablets, laptops, etc.) and are sick of having to pay for each one individually, will soon have the option to purchase a blanket of data to cover them all. Think of shared data just like you do with family shared minutes – you purchase one bulk amount of say 5GB of data, and all of your lines or data-involved devices get to pull from it.

McAdam would not go into specifics or give a time frame for release, but I wouldn’t be surprised if this was an early 2012 goal of theirs.

As long as the price is fair for a decent amount of data, I’m a big fan of this idea. Wait, did I just use “fair” and “price” in the same sentence when referring to the mobile industry? Silly me, I should know better.

Thoughts on shared data?

Via:  Fierce Wireless

Verizon CEO: Family Shared Data Plans Could Happen in 2012 is a post from: Droid Life