The real reason the BlackBerry Storm doesn’t have Wi-Fi or tri-band HSDPA
You might have guessed it, but the reason is Verizon! We confirmed this a little while back with one of our really top-level sources (you know who you are!) and they did, in fact, confirm our suspicions — Verizon said hell to the no, we don’t play that up in here! Now, before the flamewars start, I will publicly say that although it might not be crystal clear, I love Verizon. Personally, Verizon has the best voice and data network in the US. Did you hear that? I lovez me some VZW.
With that out of the way, it’s pretty clear Verizon’s stance with Wi-Fi, but no tri-band HSDPA? We can only assume Verizon thought that with tri-band HSDPA, people would be unlocking these things left and right to use the devices on AT&T and Rogers. That would take out a decent chunk of their data revenue, but at the end of the day, are that many people who now can’t get a 3G Storm but rather a 2G one going to port to Verizon because of it? That remains to be seen, but all Storm first-hand impressions aside, this thing not having Wi-Fi at the very minimum is a major pain in the ass. Does anyone remember the “leaked” Expansys photo that had the Wi-Fi indicator in it? Funny, right? And to the commenters who will start saying, “It’s the best data network, you don’t need Wi-Fi!” You’re dumb, ignorant, and stupid. Plain and simple.
@ Paul
I’m sorry, but I’ve yet to meet a person who is happy with AT&T, and I reside where their corporate headquarters is located (I’m speaking for this area only, can’t speak for other locations).
If they didn’t drop so many calls, the 3G network actually worked without the intermittent crashes and overloads…and if the iPhone could tether, swap the battery, and provide a more secure device and better keyboard (just can’t fly on the device), then maybe I’d consider moving to the iPhone and network (nothing beats the browser on the iPhone). I’m not even going to go into the small things like the ability to cut and paste on the iPhone, etc.
I really don’t care who the company is, I just want the best coverage and service. I need something that is ‘reliable’. VZW provides that on the network side, and the BB for now provides that on the device side. Perhaps the Storm will help out BB and increase their share…who knows. Only time will tell. They cover the corporate market and I don’t see that going away anytime soon.
When LTE hits, and both VZW and AT&T are running it, I guess it’ll be a matter of who markets it the best and provides the best phones and service.
PS – The Storm has international support. As for WiFi, I personally don’t have a need for it. It’s an open door to security issues from the business side. It’s better to keep those non-techie sales people off other unknown networks.
As for the consumer market, I can see where people would want it. Rev. A on VZW is great, but it doesn’t hit everywhere.
FROM THE REAL PAUL
@ bluehorseshoe
OK you polled the 73+ million AT&T customers and none are happy and all have went where? HaHa. This is the best dribble yet. I guess all the customers at AT7T, T-Mobile and all the others are just stupid then. Maybe you did not notice that AT&T is a larger copany than Verizon and took approximately 1 million customers away from them in 2008 as they left to BUY the device they wanted Verizon refused to carry. 12 million iPhones sole in 2008, 6.9 million in the 3Q alone, NONE OF THESE ARE ON Verizon!
Glad you no not have a need for WiFi many do. As far as International support this is a joke, you may want to look again. Tell you want, buy the Storm travel around the globe a bit, instead of your neighborhood, and let us know how you do with no WiFi and a CDMA phone.
When LTE hits it will be around 2010, light years away and LTE will not be widespread until 2012. As I work in the industry I know this.
See Motorola’s struggle for survival on CNET today. This was one of the biggest most successful cell maker just a few short years ago. This could easily be RIM or any other company that lags in this fast moving space.
The iPhone lack of cut and paste can be added in a quick software update I am sure will come. No WiFi will not. Apple has updated the iPhone software (no charge) adding quite a bit more features. This is something that is a hardly ever done in the cell phone biz.
Again this is NOT an iPhone vs. BB Storm post. Believe me you do not want that argument.
The corporate market is just fin, but the BB Storm was not built for that it was built to compete against the iPhone and the Android phone and without WiFi and International support it has lost already! Probably why Vodafone will be ging them away and Verizon will steeply discount them at a loss!
Maybe you want to read a later post here on BGR, where it says Verizon will not support the Android phone either. So it is clear to yech savvy users, if you want the best most innovative mobile devies they are NOT on Verizon!
Why? I have no idea! I guess their bean counter think they know better. But looking at the amount of debt they are taking on it appears they do not.
@ Paul
LMAO…
I’m sorry, but your grammar is pathetic. If you had constructed a good argument…intelligently with an educated view, I might have given your post some consideration. Obviously that’s not the case, nor is your argument a good one.
Make sure you do your due diligence before getting into a debate, especially a field you claim to be in.
1. VZW was first in every region in the JD Power & Associates survey for customer service and coverage. Alltel was in there, but are now owned by VZW. Sprint was the only other to finish in a tie with VZW in the Southwest region.
2. With the purchase of Alltel, VZW is now the largest wireless provider in the US.
3. If the ‘cut and paste’ feature is so easy to fix via a software patch, then how come it’s been over a year and it still hasn’t been done?
Wanna debate with me? Bring it on!
PS – Don’t exaggerate either. I said the people I know that have AT&T in my ‘area’, not 73 million people. Do you not have the ability to comprehend the English language? LOL…
@ bluehorseshoe:
When the attacks get personal I take it to mean you HAVE no argument.
Alltel’s right to bought by VZW was just approved by DOJ. They are NOT owned as of yet, they are not run as of yet by VZW. When they are it will cost VZW almost 30 billion dollars where they will take on over 22 billion in debt to get a “portion” of Alltel’s 13 million customers that spend about $54 per month on an average. Verizon will be required to divest their wireless holdings in 100 markets that span 22 states. SEE THIS BLOG!
AT&T has no debt and has taken about one million customers away from VZW by just having the iPhone! Seems that it was easy and cheaper to do gain customers by simply offering innovative devices.
OK, lack of cut and paste is the reason that Apple sold 12 million iPhone beating BB in 2008! HaHa.
Several new features have come in software releases and so will cut and paste, how dumb are you.
The problem is you seem to hardly leave “your area” so you have no idea that the Storm without any WiFi or tri-band HSDPA! This is NOT international support. Since you never travel why do you care? You don’t! Actual customers do!
Rear on THIS Blog:
Verizon Wireless kills Pay as You Go data plans, data plans now mandatory – guess you like paying more for less!
AND
Verizon: You don’t want that crappy G1! – guess the Android phone that will surely take away customers from Windows Mobile and RIM is not being supported by VZW either! Sure this phone is no good either? Right?
I get it only BB on ONE carrier! HaHa Debate you never, you are too scary smart for me!
@ Paul
I apologize for being rude. I didn’t realize that you were mentally challenged. When I come back up to NY on business, I’ll make sure this NY’er comes to visit you in Creedmore.
@bluehorseshoe:
Guess what dude, even if you’re right (I don’t know if you are or not, don’t care either), attacking someone’s intelligence and grammar just because they don’t agree with you or make small mistakes is really petty and immature. You should also know that the fact that you would attack someone personally as you did Paul reflects badly on one person: you. It also weakens your argument. I hope you’re just a disgruntled 16 year old who will, for everyone’s sake, eventually grow up
As for wi-fi… I have no idea who decided no wi-fi and I certainly don’t know why. I am inclined, however, to think that it might have been a technical issue on RIM’s side.. that is there was a space issue or a programming issue, or even a battery life issue. I always prefer to have as many features as possible, even if I wont use some of them… however I’m not gonna argue and argue if some things are not included.
@ bluehorseshoe:
You see there is no debate here, The BB Storm has no WiFi, VZW has passed on both the iPhone and Android and has lost about one million customers to A&T because of the iPhone. Some people want WiFi and phones that offer tri-band HSDPA, just like THIS and SEVERAL other BGR posts have also said. These are FACTS you do not like I guess.
This is NOT debatable so personal insults is all you have left. Funy how you spend so much time reading a blog you do not agree with and spend all your time attacking, instead of moving on.
Do you work fro Verizon or RIM? If so I am surprised they hire so small minded people with such BIG mouths. The only ass that would debate something so basic is an employee or worse yet a FANBOY!
Keep drinking the kool-aide!
No debate as you have no agreements. I have now moved on to another post so f%$k off!
@ Tommy L
I have a low tolerance for stupid people.
@ Paul
I’m a believer in trying to educate stupid people like yourself. BTW…are you hellno? LOL…classic. You’re all over the place. Your verbiage is so…you! Everyone, let me introduce to you…the original hellno!
Fanboy? Far from it. I go with what’s best.
Dude, you’re such a douche! I see all of “The One’s” points. What are yours? Boy Genius should hire The One for coherence and sense and sure, get him a proofreader as a bonus.
The damn phone isn’t out yet but assuming it won’t have Wi-Fi capabilities which is a major negative, surely the reasons or lack thereof posted by Boy Genious are void and bogus.
@ bluehorseshoe:
You are not smart enough to know what is best! If you have such a low tolerance for stupid people how do you look in the mirror.
NOT a thing you have said changes the facts that there is NO WiFi on the Storm No tri-band HSDPA and Verizon has lost customers to the 12 million iPhones sole in 2008. BUT I guess you do not understand what this means. Maybe when you grow up a bit and can stop with personal attacks you might learn!
TEN insulting posts later and you are still wrong. You are now over at the other post here on BGR bashing the Android G1 phone that VZW does not have. That one is no good either?
Does daddy or mommy work for Verizon and that is all they allow you to have?
I am so sorry daddy does not allow you to play with anything but toys!
The best part is that ‘Paul’ works for VZW and hates how they treat the union, hence his deep hatred for anything VZW. There you go people…a little insight into ‘Paul’.
‘Paul’…what is it with the Mommy and Daddy stuff though? You’re a freaking creepy nut job! I wasn’t far off when I said I’d visit you in Creedmore!
Wow.
@ bluehorseshoe:
First insults NOW LIES!
I do not work for VZW and I belong to NO union. I would not bother. But I think your mommy or daddy does!
Isn’t it past your bed time? Quickly, turn off your Fisher Price computer, before your mommy sees the light on in your room and you get in trouble for annoying the adults.
Didn’t they teach you not to be rude? Children should be seen and not heard. I your case they should be not seen or heard.
See I know you must be a pimply teen with an attitude as only an immature ass would get personal, insulting and lie when he can not change the facts his doesn’t like and has no argument. Frustration is all over your crappy comments.
Again the facts you hate. Storm has NO WiFi or tri-band HSDPA and Verizon has lost many customers to the 12 million iPhones sold in 2008 alone. In fact they outsold RIM in the 3Q in unit sales after being in the business ONLY 15 months. RIM is doing its best to copy iPhone with the Storm even get rid of the much hyped mechanical keyboard.
Did VZW learn from that? Apparently not they are now passing on the Android G1 and are being forced to sell the Storm for about $100 at a loss while Vodafone gives it away.
Remember I am the guy who also has a BB Curve on Verizon that replaced a Windows Mobile. So I have tried both networks and multiple phones and can compare, not guess!
I want to thank BGR for the great reporting and pissing guys like bluehorseshoe (Means BIG Mouth I Guess)!
Go to sleep you have to get up for grammar school in the morning.
Holy S**t!
LOL…chemical imbalance!
Seriously, I hope you get your meds and the help you need. Not sure if they know you’re out.
@ bluehorseshoe:
Did mommy catch you!
Folks I did some checking. I guess we can ignore bluehorseshoe as he is a troll. If you check around the net you will see he does this non-sense every where.
I found this from a website called “Gothic Chess Hangout.” It surprised me he does not sound like the chess type. See Below:
From the Gothic Chess Hangout website:
Troll Alert – BlueHorseShoe = Moron
Everyone, please be mindful that the user “BlueHorseshoe” is not the Grandmaster who used to sign onto GothicChessLive.com and play Gothic Chess.
Do not reply to BlueHorseShoe’s posts on here. Ignore him, and the moron will go away.
Great so you annoy everyone on things you know nothing about. Now stop it or we will tell your mommy.
He is actually a snot-nosed 21 year old know nothing from West Chester PA that likes to use Michael Douglas’ picture as his alter ego. Maybe he wishes he could meet Catherine Zeta-Jones. Too bad she works for T-Mobile thought! bluehorseshoe seems to be a Verizon ONLY kid! That is all daddy allows him to use.
Daddy may not buy you a Storm anyway if he finds out how rude you are to adults.
So troll, are we through yet playing with adults? Finished making stupid arguments? Pointless is it not?
You have been exposed. I can find more if you like.
I knew it! Hellno as ‘Paul’. We’ve already had you banned from one site due to you linking one of your posts to a sexual website.
And if you want to take it a step further, we can confirm the IP addresses. The moment you wrote ‘Gothic’, that was it, the give away. Do you try to get kicked off every blog there is?
@ bluehorseshoe:
Nice try ass, that was your poppa TROLL! Seems all anyone has to do is Google your handle and they will find that YOU have been kicked off or ignored off many websites.
See I use my name, not a handle as I have nothing to hide!
See it is OK if dad does not buy you a Storm for your 22 birthday as there are actually better more advanced devices in this big world.
You see the lil’ Storm has NO WiFi or tri-band HSDPA and this makes international travel a bit harder. You do want to travel when you grow up now, don’t you?
Verizon has actually lost many customers including many in the sale of 12 million iPhones in 2008 alone. In fact Apple outsold RIM in the 3Q in unit sales after being in the bell phone business ONLY 15 months.
Google, you heard of them right, has a phone OS now called Android that VZW does not offer. It has WiFi and open source software and music from Amazon (heard of them).
Now get to sleep so you can be bright and trolly in the morning as it seems you are out of smart ass remarks and lost this argument a long time ago.
MORE lies does not change the facts. It just shows what an ass you are.
Isn’t this illegal?
“Torrents uploaded by bluehorseshoe – Mininova”
Now I see why you hate the iPhone you pirate instead? Does daddy not give you an allowance?
@ bluehorseshoe:
Finally silence. I guess his mom made him to bed and he is off to his 7th grade history class this morning! Or maybe the six D batteries in his Fisher Price computer finally died and he needs to wait for his mom to pick up fresh ones at the A&P.
I sure hope his mommy limits his computer use so we can all move on.
Just in case you come back for more I will point out that you know nothing even about the company you love. Verizon Wireless does not have a union. They are a non-union shop. You should have paid attention when your daddy told you that?
Verizon Telco is union, not Verizon Wireless which is a different company.
Never challenge anyone again to a debate as you had no argument that had anything to do with the facts, just personal insults. This makes you look like an ass.
Honestly Paul you’re an idiot. You are the only one on here responding to EVERYONE’s comments…and I do mean EVERYONE! Whether it has anything to do with you or not…do you have a life? Seriously, this post has been up since friday…everyone went to a party or did something with their life that day…you on the other hand is like the internet nerd with nothing better to do than sit in front of your computer all day refreshing BGR just so you can have something to do. I bet you sit there just pacing wishing someone would reply to this post huh? I mean this isn’t exactly Revenge of the Nerds or anything you sure are having fun. I left work on Friday and you were still replying. I arrive Monday morning and it is the same thing…like 30 comments from you…having to do with nothing but just replying to people’s comments…wow…what a sad existence you live. I’m sure you’re going to reply to this also so I’ll give you a reason to. When I brought up a point earlier you said this post is about Wifi on the Storm…ummm, if that’s the case then what is all this useless talk you’re making about the iPhone and Android and AT&T? Honestly go make some friends because you won’t find any here…live the basement…shut down your computer for the first time in your life and go out and be amazed at your first sight of something called the sun. It’s quite a beauty.
@ BG – I honestly think you knew it wasn’t Verizon’s doing and these Storm posts are just your bread and butter so you fuel it as much as you can. No other posts receive as many reads or comments and you love that! lol. No iPhone, AT&T or Apple posts get as much love. Verizon’s another good one for you but hey I understand you have to make that money. 220 comments just for lack of Wifi support for the Storm…kind of amazing don’t you think?
@ likeabite:
Sure sure. I guess you did not read any of the posts. It was me all along pointing out how I agreed with the BGR while all the kool-aide drinkers that will do anything to defend VZW attacked me for it.
As far as the personal attacks. I will ignore them as it just proves you have a weak argument. The personal attacks were the ONLY comebacks to this discussion. No substance at all. All I saw was how no-one needed WiFi! HaHa. 12 million iPhone later in 2008 say different.
I was not the first to bring up Android, iPhone or AT&T. The people like you who attacked me did. I merely agreed with the post here on BGR that points out the FACTS you don’t like!
From reading your latest diatribe. It appears you STILL no not like the FACTS. Sorry about that, but NO WiFi and tri-band HSDPA is NEWS!
Since Verizon and RIM have both lost customers to newer devices that have these features and the Storm is being pushed to compete. This makes it BIG NEWS!
If BGR is so wrong, why read this?
If none of this is Verizon’s fault as YOU some how think you know. Why then do they ONLY have ONE WiFi handset in their entire line-up and passed on both iPhone and Android? No good answers I am sure. So shut your hole (the one in your head also).
So now you and your retarded little brother can go away and watch and see how well this neutered device does against the competition all while ignoring the numbers. Especially since you don’t care about other people who are upset that Verizon does not support these features on the neutered phones they offer.
Here is why I think it doesn’t have Wi-Fi (not sure if it was VZW or RIM).
I think RIM wanted to get this device out to as many carriers as they could, minus AT&T for now (more on that later).
They had to put 3 or 4 chips into the device so they could do this. Now by doing this there is no room for a wi-fi chip. The FCC has regulations that the chips have to be so far apart in the device so they don’t interfer with one another.
Now the AT&T version of the Storm will have Wi-Fi because there won’t be as many chips in the device, mainly the CDMA one so they can replace that one with a Wi-Fi chip.
@ Terry:
Could be you are right.
VZW has a long history of not supporting WiFi however. They have never offered a BB with WiFi as other carriers have. They only offer one phone right now running Windows Mobile with WiFi.
No matter the reason, it is a disadvantage to not have this feature. WiFi is faster then 3G and is very convenient, especially when traveling.
VZW also seems to only want to offer phones that connect with their own music service and GPS navigator services and have rejected other devices that offered alternatives.
@Paul:
This is one reason I am just going to get the Bold. I had the iPhone and the Wi-Fi came in really handy to get my e-mails when I didn’t have coverage.
I know someone that tests out phones for RIM and have heard the GSM version for AT&T will have Wi-Fi. Only time will tell thouh.