Internal Verizon Wireless document: iPhone 3G is a scam and we’re better
Leave it up to our wireless carriers to use Afghan tactics to try and con convince current and potential customers to stay or sign up for service, right? We just got our hands on an internal VZW doc that was distributed to agents which breaks down the iPhone 3G data plan and price. It’s actually pretty comical with Verizon telling agents the iPhone 3G doesn’t support turn-by-turn GPS navigation (which it doesn’t at the moment) but all Verizon data devices do. Why is that funny? Well, we’d pay to not use Verizon’s craptastic GPS software. Another one? Verizon inaccurately stating that “There is an assumption that the new iPhone’s data package will include all data – IT DOES NOT!!” Oh, VZW… maybe if you didn’t pass on the phone you wouldn’t be spreading this madness. At least you have Thunder soon, no?
Thanks, Harris!
This is hilarious. Can’t a sleezy cellular provider make a dishonest buck anymore?
cellular one baby. back to the 90’s!
RE: william –
“Someone please post something real, something that is actually worth posting answering my question of what VZW offers that nobody else does, and something i didn’t mention…go on, i dare ya…”
Um…. a 3G network that blankets the vast majority of the country. That work for ya?
Also, it’s cool that you work for AT&T and all, but if you think your company is above misleading the consumer you are either horribly naive or have just drank too much Kool-Aid. Either way you’re wrong.
I left verizon for the the iPhone, there is nothing verizon carriesvthat is comparable. Frsnkley I’m glad verizon didn’t take it. They would probably put a surcharge on all apps, force their retarded interface on it and charge you 4.99 a month for gps, as well as 4.99 for push email.
Greg B:
“a 3G network that blankets the vast majority of the country.”
Hrm… When did Verizon move to GSM? Oh wait, they didn’t. OH, you mean EVDO Rev. A – yeah the DEAD standard. A max of 1.4Mbps down. My aircard gets 7.2Mbps down.
Vast majority of the country. You have a point, CDMA has been around since forever in the US. That’s why you need special phones to go overseas. Right, hows that working for ya bud?
I travel a lot and I have 3G coverage almost everywhere. Of course I try to stay out of the midwest and places that have less than 95% of their streets paved. But hey, if you like rural areas, go right ahead and rock on with your 6 month old tech.
Besides, lets see you boast a nationwide network as “vast majority” when VZW moves to LTE. I mean AT&T has had a 4yr head start on building a GSM infrastructure.
How’s that working for ya?
jeremy, are you a friggin idiot?? mobileme is not necessary for an iphone at all; its a service that is completely optional. you dont even have to have an iphone to take advantage of mobileme. dont start a debate if you’re going to present false information.
MadMike, really need to look up the meaning of 3G. Verizon with all their faults still has the biggest 3G network with rev A. 3G does not have to be GSM.
AT&T is very far behind in pushing broadband speeds to its customers. VZW might have the LTE done before AT&T can get their 3G network done. And as an ATT customer its frustrating.
Also, VZ Navigator is much better than just using Google Maps for GPS. Much more options, and voice turn by turn directions. Yes, it’s not free, but I don’t know of any Voice Activated turn by turn gps app that is free.
The argument about gsm being better in this country is bull, so it may be the standard everywhere is who gives a shit, CDMA has turned out to be the main system in this country. And i dont see how cdma is a dead standard since your att 3g is based on it lol. as for traveling, im gonna guess you think every vzw customer is a businessman who needs to travel to another country every week and use his phone all the time, right…… just face it, cdma is better in this country, and att has meh network (more bars of sweet edge)
p.s. you dont need a gsm infrastructure to go to LTE genius, qualcomm is making CDMA->LTE radios
This entire post was comical to me until cwcanty said that AT&T locks down the GPS. That’s just untrue. In fact, I was in Europe using the free service Google Maps (with real-time traffic and GPS) on my AT&T 8800 series Blackberry while my wife and mother-in-law, with the same phones but from Verizon, had their GPS disabled. Therefore, they could not get directions based on GPS locale. And I could. Even though I hate Verizon’s CDMA platform, I was still surprised that this solid company would do this to its subscribers.
thank you sassy pants girlie report. VZW must’ve scratched the iPhone. Beautiful thing about blogs. You can be a fanboy and a “journalist”.
Well boys let me say this I sure did have a person, who was a verizon employee almost bite my head clean off as a result of even seeing me with an iPhone, so say what you will but they are some haters especially here in so-cal. Now I will say this 3G coverage is not as large as Verizon’s, but its in all the high level business markets which is where people buy these data cards anyway (where the real data revenue comes from) not cell phones. Also of note is them pointing out that its twice as fast only in 3G areas, well thats true of any cell phone. An to be frank, which they did not include is that that EDGE is much faster then 1X which is all you get if its not on Verizon’s 3G/EV-DO, so thats is definately hater speak not an advantage. Also worth noting is that there are turn by turn directions, but they are manual, however manual means no service, because an iPhone 3G will damn sure utilize GPS to follow you down a highway that is marked with a highlighted line indicating your route, which is pretty damn close to turn by turn. Lastly and most importantly i guess is the fact that the iPhone simply doesn’t suck. As I have said many times (longtime blackberry user and former VZW customer) its not that the iPhone is doing something no other cell phone can’t do, its simply that it has been refined enough to do it right and easily enough so that most anyone can use it effectively. Oh and lastly, they said that you can only download music through a WIFI connection;…and? They also did no mention that’s relative non issue considering you get access to the worlds biggest library of songs and they are still 99 cents a song. Anybody ask Verizon what they are charging per song? Because it ain’t 99 cents, and where are the movie, TV and music video downloads? Again some of it might be true, but most of it is hate, and the school of though I come from is you must be doing something right if you have haters, so let the haters hate.
Mike your right, and LTE bit is awesome, these people have no clue that in the future, Verizon and ATT will be interoperable through GSM standardization, Vodafone has already confirmed it. Rock on with your good post!
Wow everyone missed the whole point of this article. I see people can’t take things funny, if don’t like what’s posting then take your ass somewhere else.
Thats not entirely True. AT&T doesnt copy everything VZW does. Case in point AT&T wasn’t stupid enough to pass on the most innovative device in the US. So what if they claim there plans cost “less” What they havent addressed is that the device you get the privelage of using with the plan. You get your choice of Palms, Blackberry, or Windows Devices…. YAWN!!! If you want to cry about the price jump ship to Sprint they have room for some new customers I hear.
@JKuhn: Qualcomm isn’t making much of anything at the present moment. Oh and just because its based on something doesn’t make them the same. Its like Democrats and Republicans – we technically came from the same party that split in the 1820’s. That was Thomas Jefferson’s Republican party that became the Democratic-Republican Party and then split LEFT & RIGHT (get it?), just the Right went through a few names and a few more splits until it stabilized in the 1840’s. Where are they now? Two different entities. So GSM != CDMA and EVDO != UTMS. Got it? good.
@Dtest54: If you go by the “Generation” approach then yes, EVDO Rev. A is a 3rd generation, but then AT&T’s latest UTMS standard would technically be 3.5G. Like EDGE is 2.5G. But EVDO is topped out, and there is no more. The next step is LTE which is slated 2011+.
However – they plan on making the AT&T and the Verizon LTE infrastructures interoperable so they can get roaming charges. Which means if you get unlimited roaming on your plan, you the consumer is going to win.
Of course if you don’t, you will either get crappy service or pay through the nose in roaming charges.
Ahhh, what a country we live in where a company can do something to help the consumer and then FUCK us right up in the ass AT THE SAME TIME! It’s great, I love it.
Alright, alright – break it up people. First off, those of you who expect VZW to just put out a flier to it’s employees that says “AT&T and iPhone are much better, please recommend to all customers.” are not bound for CEO positions in your own company.
Secondly, VZW mostly attacks the service by AT&T, not the iPhone itself. Uh..hi, where have you all been? This has been Verizon’s campaign since before iPhone was out.
I said it before and I’ll say it again…if you like your AT&T service, then hooray for you! You obviously will not be one of the people shopping in a VZW store. See, this is for sales people…in the VZW stores…where prospective customers come in to see what they offer? Get it? It’s called selling.
You travel overseas frequently? you need data overseas frequently? You have the ability to shop and compare? You probably won’t end up with VZW, and rightly so. It’s call ’shopping around’.
Lastly, and I know this will get someone angry. VZW was growing like gangbusters before the first iPhone came out. AT&T was the desperate one that sold it’s soul to Apple to sell Apple’s ambrosia–err–iPhone. They needed a gimmick, VZW didn’t. And a year later, yes, AT&T has had more subscriber growth than VZW overall…but it hasn’t been in the post-paid sector, which is where the iPhone is marketed. And VZW still has lower churn. So…there you go.
Oh, and I agree…CDMA is a dying technology that served most non-globetrotting, average call-making customers well. If only VZW would move to LTE like AT&T..oh wait…they are.
Well, to be honest. The frequency VZW uses for its basic service (non-data) has better penetration through buildings.
Now of course we are all holding LTE up like its some sort of Jesus technology that will fix all that is wrong with the world. Lets be honest, its going to suck because it WON’T perform what we are hyping it up to and they will charge us out the ass for it. BOTH AT&T and VZW. Because they both came from the same company that was so corrupt it was broken up. Corruption and preference to shareholders over customers are in these companies DNA, no matter how much they split and re-join like molecules.
We can be sure of two things: One: When we absolutely need it, or think we need it – it will fail us in some way. Two: We will pay too much for it and be nickle and dimed to hell and back for it.
BGR ate some wang, huh? VZ Navigator is easily the best nav solution offered on a US carrier right now. Instinct looks like garbage from a Toys R Us leftovers bin and iPhone doesn’t speak to you, so it’s useless while driving — unless you’re one of the many CRAPTASTIC drivers who’s reading his cell phone while endangering mine and my M5’s wellbeing.
Come on you idiots, there was NEVER going to be a chance APPL would make a CDMA iPhone for Verizon to offer. All of you hating on VZW because they “lost” the iPhone are just plain LAME, you’ve just rationalizing. Honestly, Apple can’t keep up with demand since the 1st one came out, let alone manage that demand on two different models (GSM for the world and CDMA for NA).
Im a T-mobile customer & I agree with much of this Verizon internal doc (its pretty accurate) but its unfair to compare the Iphone data plan with the Verizon Premium Plan Package. I also understand that these are selling tactics. The limits of the Iphone data plan isnt stoping consumers from buying Iphones & joining At&t. Its old news that Boy Genius is an At&t fan boy but this document really hurt his fellings.
LOL
@ MadMike
The more you post, the more you are making yourself look like an idiot. I love when someone like you thinks they know everything about ATT and VZW. And to top it off you have “friends” that work at vzw and know everything too. Get back to taking calls at your call center and leave wireless discussions to grownups.
BGR used to have all the good info but he is slipping. More and more “he” seems jaded, biased, etc. Lately he is leaking inaccurate info and just slipping. iPhone is not the end all be all. Recently i saw an article in the Times or WSJ about how everyone is an Apple imitator – then one person wrote how everyone forgot Apple itself was a follower of HTC who was the first to launch a touch device with gestures when they launched the TOUCH. You have to hand it to Steve Jobs though. He sure knows how to manipulate the minds of the weak. All of you fools drank the cool aid and are buying what he is selling. lol.
@ Selena: I too work for VZW and we did receive this document. I received it well over a month ago.
@ BoyGenius: WOW!! Seriously? Why all the downing on VZW? If this web site is suppose to cover info on all carriers and has ads from all carries, I think you should knock of the bias and just present ACTUAL facts. YES, I understand everyone has their own opinion, as I have my own, but as a site that is suppose to represent everyone, I think you should do it fairly. This isn’t the only post that you down vzw either. The one about vzw being #1 in customer service… you still find a way to put them down or “question” them. Couldn’t you just post the information and leave it at that?
Uhh. I don’t work at a call center. I don’t even work in the wireless industry. I’m just copy/pasting info from the 3GPP site and a few white papers.
Oh and providing something where I was blatantly wrong would be beneficial either. But you provided nothing. So leave your baseless accusations elsewhere.
I know 1 person that works for Verizon Wireless. I don’t think I have ever referenced “friends” that worked for VZW. That was another poster.
And Grownups? Well, you don’t want to go there.
Oh and what have you brought to this discussion? Oh that’s right, nothing.
The only thing that matters is that the iphone works well and has the best GUI out there. Everything works together and does it well.