Verizon Bringing Service to 36 NYC subway Stations

It doesn't matter that Verizon has the best 4G network when you are in the subway and have no service. Verizon is joining rival cell carriers AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile by inking a deal with Transit Wireless to bring 3G and LTE voice and data to 36 subway stations later in the year. These stations already have wireless service, it's just a matter of Verizon adding its own hardware. The network will begin to rollout service in the next few weeks in Chelsea and midtown in Manhattan.

Big Red is also participating in phase two of Transit's coverage project. This phase brings coverage to 40 new stations, including Grand Central, Herald Square, and Bryant Park, in early 2014.

TextNow Launches IP mobile phone service for $19/month

The list of no-contract carriers keeps on growing, and a new carrier called TextNow is joining that list. The carrier started out as an app for making free calls and sending texts over WiFi. The service piggybacks on Sprint's 3G and 4G network where there is no WiFi. There are two TextNow enabled phones, they phones use VoIP and the carrier claims to be the only all IP mobile operator. The only two phones are the Nexus S for $90 and the Galaxy S II for $120. Plans begin at $19 per month.

FreedomPop Offers Free 500MB of LTE per month, upgrades to Sprint's LTE Network

FreedomPop is crazy with its wireless offerings. You buy a wireless hotspot or USB dongle, and you get 500MB of free data each month with no contract, activation or cancellation fees. FreedomPop's network was kind of crappy at first, running on Sprint's WiMAX's network, but the carrier has moved up to Sprint's LTE network.

LTE service will start off at first with a single device, the $150 FreedomSpot 5580, a Novatel Wireless dongle also known as the Sprint MiFi 500 LTE which lasts up to 10 hours on a charge. FreedomPop claims users will see average speeds of 6 to 8 megabits per second, and peak speeds of up to 25Mbps on the new network.

Dish Abandons Sprint in Favor of Clearwire

DISH has not submitted a new offer to buy Sprint Nextel, as per the deadline of tonight, so that means that SoftBank is the default suitor at this point.

DISH's decision has paved the road for SoftBank to take over the provider. Sprint shareholders will give final approval over the $21.6 billion offer next Tuesday.

DISH's full statement in regards to the withdrawal:

While DISH continues to see strategic value in a merger with Sprint, the decisions made by Sprint to prematurely terminate our due diligence process and accept extreme deal protections in its revised agreement with SoftBank, among other things, have made it impracticable for DISH to submit a revised offer by the June 18th deadline imposed by Sprint. We will consider our options with respect to Sprint, and focus our efforts and resources on completing the Clearwire tender offer."

 

Softbank Sees Acquiring T-Mobile as "Plan B"

Softbank is trying to trying to make an entrance into the US cellular market, but it isn't going as great as they thought as it would be. Softbank is trying to acquire Sprint. First, DISH tries to knock Softbank out of the ring to buy Sprint. In case they do get knocked out, DISH seems to be eyeing T-Mobile as a backup. According to Reuters, the Japanese are in talks with Deutsche Telekom to buy its shares of the carrier.

If Sprint shareholders reject the Softbank deal on June 12th, Big Magenta may be moving to Japan.

Zact: The Reinvented Wireless Carrier

Imagine a wireless carrier that allowed you to build your own plan. Zact, an upstart service provider created by Andreessen Horowitz-backed ItsOn that uses Sprint’s network, has an amazing breakthrough on wireless.

Zact has all no contract plans, so there is no commitment. Just a simple plan, 500 minutes, 1,000 texts, and 1 GB of data will cost just short of $40. At the end of the month, Zact's billing style is much different than that of traditional cell providers. Regular carriers, such as AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint, will charge you for what you paid for, and will send you no notification that you should downgrade or upgrade your plan. Zact automatically goes and looks back at your usage for the past month. It will only charge you for the nearest plan that fits your usage; no extra charges for data/texts/call minutes you didn't use. This is a different business model for cell carriers, actually try and charge the customer as little as possible.

There is only one catch though: Zact only has two Android smartphones (three if you count a color change), and then only one with LTE. None of them are very pretty though. Ting is a slightly more attractive Sprint MVNO, but only because it offers more devices. I am definitely going to be keeping my eye on Zact, they are really onto something.