Alltel was a landline , wireless and general telecommunications services provider , primarily based in the United States. Before its wireless division was acquired by Verizon Wireless and AT&T , Alltel provided cellular service to 34 states and had approximately 13 million subscribers. As a regulatory condition of the acquisition by Verizon, a small portion of Alltel was spun off and continued to operate under the same name in six states, mostly in rural areas. Following the merger, Alltel remained the ninth largest wireless telecommunications company in the United States, with approximately 800,000 customers. On January 22, 2013, AT&T announced they were acquiring what remained of Alltel from Atlantic Tele-Network for $ 780 million in cash.
85-591: At its peak, Alltel operated a network in 34 states, with a wireless coverage footprint comprising the largest network in the United States by area. The company focused on small to medium size cities providing wireless services to residential and business customers in all 50 states through roaming agreements with Verizon and Sprint . These agreements gave Alltel customers access to nationwide service, while providing those carriers coverage in rural areas. On June 5, 2008, Verizon Wireless announced it would acquire
170-556: A bowling alley . The third commercial took place in a court room, with the faces of the other carriers blurred. In "The Century's Trial of the Century", Edward Maxwell Von Houten, attorney for the People Against My Circle Foundation, sued Chad for attempting to force people into calling circles. After that, Alltel started a series of commercials involving Chad, bragging about Alltel's service and using
255-478: A 10% interest in Yahoo! . The service was shut down on August 31, 2021, in favor of Visible. On November 23, 2021, Verizon purchased TracFone Wireless which was worth an approximately $ 6.25 billion. On September 30, 2024, after a massive outage, Verizon confirmed that its cell service was back online. Verizon Wireless operates 5G and 4G LTE networks. As of January 2020 , Verizon claims that 99% of
340-552: A 4G LTE Broadband Router with Voice that can connect up to 10 devices over Wi-Fi as well as home phone service. This service and device have since been discontinued. The LTE in Rural America Program (or LRA program), introduced in May 2010, covers 2.7 million potential users over 225,000 square miles (580,000 km ) in 169 rural counties. Under this program, partners lease spectrum from Verizon Wireless and connect to
425-643: A WLAN to a WLAN or a GSM network to a GSM network, has already been described above and is likewise defined by the foreignness of the network based on the type of subscriber entry in the home subscriber register. In the case of session continuity, seamless access to these services across different access types is provided. The term "roaming", also known as "e-roaming", is a concept for charging battery electric vehicles (BEVs) at other charging stations. In practice, e-roaming allows EV drivers to achieve greater interoperability by providing access to public charging points from any owner/operator's EV charging network through
510-631: A Wi-Fi network. As of August 2015 , nearly 4 million of Verizon's 103.7 million subscribers used VoLTE. In 2019, Verizon announced that they plan to shut down their CDMA2000 network by the end of 2020, making VoLTE the only way to make calls on their network. In September 2015, Verizon's chief information and technology architect Roger Gurnani stated that Verizon was planning to trial a 5G wireless network within 12 months, with "some level of commercial deployment" by 2017. In late August 2016, Verizon officially announced that it had rolled out LTE Advanced services in 461 markets. The company promoted that
595-608: A call. This charge is called a flagfall charge. In the European Union , regulation on roaming charges began on 30 June 2007, forcing service providers to lower their roaming fees across the 28-member bloc. It later also included EEA member states. The regulation set a price cap of €0.39 (€0.49 in 2007, €0.46 in 2008, €0.43 in 2009) per minute for outgoing calls, and €0.15 (€0.24 in 2007, €0.22 in 2008, €0.19 in 2009) per minute for incoming calls - excluding tax. Having still found that market conditions did not justify lifting
680-473: A common platform and a single network subscription or contract. There are proprietary (closed) charging networks, such as Tesla Superchargers , or providers sharing charging points through contracts and agreements. Thus, the EV can "roam" between those charging points. "Home network" refers to the network the subscriber is registered with. "Visitor network" refers to the network a subscriber roams temporarily and
765-468: A company policy of removing these restrictions during emergency situations. In 2019, Verizon Wireless services were split between two new divisions: Verizon Consumer and Verizon Business . The name "Wireless" was extinguished, rebranding the mobile network as simply Verizon. Verizon still often abbreviates their name to "VZW", with the W standing for Wireless. In 2020 Verizon launched a prepaid mobile phone service named Yahoo! Mobile after acquiring
850-438: A customer-unique ID field ("X-UIDH") into all unencrypted HTTP headers. The mechanism has been referred to as a " supercookie " or "perma-cookie", although it is technically not a cookie in that it does not store information on the customers device and is transparent to the user. It cannot be averted with common mechanisms like ad-blockers; however it cannot be inserted into encrypted HTTPS and VPN connections. Verizon advertises
935-437: A deal that also granted the carrier title sponsorship of the series, Verizon subscribers also have access to exclusive streaming content within the official IndyCar Series app. The My Verizon app is used for account management, including checking usage statistics and managing the user's service plan and account features. Verizon Cloud, which allows photos, videos, contacts, messages and call logs to be synchronized online,
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#17328022656611020-599: A deal to buy Alltel for $ 5.9 billion in equity while assuming $ 22.2 billion worth of debt. The deal was finalized on January 9, 2009, again making Verizon Wireless the country's largest cellphone network. As per the agreement, Verizon sold rural wireless properties across 18 states to AT&T. Those properties were in Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia and Wyoming. Verizon's acquisitions continued in
1105-465: A draft report proposing coordinated action on roaming services. This was followed by a final report in February 2013 recommending that the two countries equip their telecommunications regulators with an extended palette of regulatory remedies, when they investigate international roaming. The Australian and New Zealand prime ministers subsequently announced that they would introduce legislation to effect
1190-403: A free unlimited mobile to mobile feature. Most mobile phone operators will require the customer's living or billing address be inside their coverage area or less often inside the government issued radio frequency license of the mobile phone operator, this is usually determined by a computer estimate because it is impossible to guarantee coverage . If a potential customer's address is not within
1275-492: A last-minute decision to "indefinitely" halt the retirement. They later confirmed that the CDMA network will be retired on December 31, 2022. Verizon customers using a CDMA-only device, or an LTE device that does not support Voice over LTE , were required to upgrade to a newer device in order to continue using the network. The shutdown was completed at the end of 2022 as planned. A report by RootMetrics on carrier performance in
1360-423: A mobile phone being used outside the range of its native network and connecting to another available cell network . In more technical terms, roaming refers to the ability for a cellular customer to automatically make and receive voice calls, send and receive data, or access other services, including home data services, when travelling outside the geographical coverage area of the home network , by means of using
1445-657: A new wireless phone service joint venture valued at $ 70 billion. The joint venture was being created as Bell Atlantic underwent a merger with GTE Corporation . In April 2000, the companies announced that the Bell Atlantic–GTE merger would take the name Verizon and that the Bell Atlantic–Vodafone wireless unit would be called Verizon Wireless (legally Cellco Partnership d.b.a. Verizon Wireless). Verizon Communications owned 55 percent of Verizon Wireless while Vodafone retained 45 percent ownership. Regulators with
1530-557: A per-minute basis for wireless voice service, per text message sent and received and per megabyte of data used for data service, and they are typically determined by the service provider's pricing plan. Several carriers in both the United States and India have eliminated these fees in their nationwide pricing plans. All of the major carriers now offer pricing plans that allow consumers to purchase nationwide roaming-free minutes. However, carriers define "nationwide" in different ways. For example, some carriers define "nationwide" as anywhere in
1615-471: A phone to work in a country with a different frequency allocation, it must support one or both of that country's frequencies, and thus be tri or quad band . If international roaming allows the traveler to stay connected during their trip, it can also generate significant costs for users, due to the trend of carriers pricing GSM usage internationally outrageously high if the traveler elects to not purchase an optional addon to their current phone service. In fact,
1700-746: A storefront in the Hillcrest district of Little Rock. The business sold electrical appliances in the front of the building, and the company enabled Wilbourn and Miller to buy telephone equipment wholesale. Alltel's modern history begins in 1983 when Allied Telephone and Mid-Continent Telephone merged. Mid-Continent Telephone was originally a theatre company and started in 1931 by Eddie Ruben and Joe L. Floyd in Minnesota. In 1985, Alltel launched its first wireless system in Charlotte, North Carolina . In 1993, Alltel opened its first wireless retail store. In 1997,
1785-587: A three phase turn down schedule in response to the FCC decision stating that by March 1, 2008 A and B side carriers are no longer required to support analog. The analog systems were retired by the end of 2008. While Alltel had not outlined its future path, merger partner Verizon Wireless had already announced plans to switch to GSM-based LTE . There were Alltel-owned and -operated networks in parts of 6 states . Alltel utilized roaming agreements with competing providers to provide coast-to-coast service. Roaming agreements in
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#17328022656611870-550: A variety of devices. Verizon Wireless offers smartphones powered by Apple 's iOS and Google 's Android . Both its basic phones and smartphones use their 4G LTE or 5G network. The company offers different voice and data plans for its users. Introduced in February 2015 as Verizon Wireless Home Phone Connect, Wireless Home Phone uses Verizon's cellular network rather than using traditional landline wires to provide home phone service. Verizon Mobile network, branded as Jetpack. The company offered home Internet service through
1955-611: A variety of devices. Its LTE in Rural America Program, with 21 rural wireless carriers participating, covers 2.7 million potential users in 169 rural counties. Verizon Wireless announced in 2015 that it was developing a 5G , or fifth-generation, network. In 2020, 230 million people were able to access Verizon's 5G, or fifth-generation, dynamic spectrum sharing (DSS) technology network; by 2024, 250 million people were covered by Verizon's 5G Ultra Wideband network. In September 1999, American phone company Bell Atlantic and British -based Vodafone Airtouch PLC proposed they would create
2040-486: A vehicle that was being used to coordinate responses to the Mendocino Complex Fire . The department reported that a Verizon Wireless customer service representative insisted that they must upgrade to a higher-cost data plan in order to restore their internet speed. In a statement, Verizon acknowledged that they did not properly explain the terms of the contract, and that the representative did not adhere to
2125-471: A visited network . For example: should a subscriber travel beyond their cell phone company's transmitter range, their cell phone would automatically hop onto another phone company's service, if available. The process is supported by the Telecommunication processes of mobility management, authentication , authorization and accounting billing procedures (known as AAA or 'triple A'). Roaming
2210-713: A wider range than its mmWave 5G (henceforth branded by Verizon as "5G Ultra Wideband ") services, and is available to most existing Verizon subscribers with a supported device (unlike mmWave service, which requires one of the service's newer unlimited plans), but uses "dynamic spectrum sharing" with LTE service, and does not have the same level of speed as mmWave. As of December 2020, more than 200 million people were able to access Verizon’s 5G network through Verizon’s DSS -enabled service. As of April 2023, Verizon reached 200 million people covered for its Verizon's 5G Ultra Wideband. Verizon intended to retire its 2G and 3G CDMA network in favor of LTE and 5G on January 1, 2021, but made
2295-488: Is a common practice) pair depends on the switch and its location. Hence, software changes and a greater processing capability are required, but furthermore this situation could introduce the fairly new concept of roaming on a per MSC basis instead of per Operator basis. But this is actually a burden, so it is avoided. This type refers to customers who purchase service with a mobile phone operator intending to permanently roam, or be off-network. This becomes possible because of
2380-805: Is a subscription-based service and app can be used to track the locations of family members on a map for up to 10 devices. Verizon Family Base allows parents to restrict when and how their children use their phones, view their children's contacts and lock the devices. Verizon also offers the GizmoPal, a wristband-worn phone for children that is restricted to only placing or receiving calls from one of two designated caregivers, and has GPS tracking . Other Verizon Wireless apps include Field Force Manager, which allows employers to manage employees with GPS, management timesheets and oversee travel, Visual Voice Mail and Roadside Assistance. Verizon Wireless offers mobile phone, home telephone, and Internet services through
2465-416: Is divided into "SIM-based roaming" and "username/password-based roaming", whereby the technical term "roaming" also encompasses roaming between networks of different network standards, e.g. WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network) or GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) . Device equipment and functionality, such as SIM card capability, antenna and network interfaces , and power management , determine
2550-519: Is headquartered in Basking Ridge, New Jersey . It was founded in 2000 as a joint venture of American telecommunications firm Bell Atlantic , which would soon become Verizon Communications , and British multinational telecommunications company Vodafone . Verizon Communications became the sole owner in 2014 after buying Vodafone's 45-percent stake in the company. It operates national 5G and 4G LTE networks covering about 99 percent of
2635-622: Is high and the country is divided into telecom circles , this type of roaming is common. Following the launch of the Pebble Network in the UK on 15 July 2015, national roaming has been possible across the major UK networks at no additional cost using a Pebble Network SIM card. This type of roaming refers to the ability to move to a foreign service provider's network. It is, consequently, of particular interest to international tourists and business travelers. Broadly speaking, international roaming
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2720-430: Is not allowed unless under very specific circumstances and under regulatory scrutiny. This has often taken place when a new company is assigned a mobile telephony license (such as Free Italia 's 10-year national roaming deal with Wind Tre ), to create a more competitive market by allowing the new entrant to offer coverage comparable to that of established operators (by requiring the existing operators to allow roaming while
2805-402: Is outside the bounds of the "home network". The legal roaming business aspects negotiated between the roaming partners for billing of the services obtained are usually stipulated in so called roaming agreements. The GSM Association broadly outlines the content of such roaming agreements in standardized form for its members. For the legal aspects of authentication, authorization and billing of
2890-445: Is roaming onto. This is because they can not pass that extra cost onto customers ("free roaming"). Roaming calls within a local tariff area, when at least one of the phones belong outside that area. Usually implemented with trombone routing also known as tromboning . Verizon Wireless Verizon is an American wireless network operator that previously operated as a separate division of Verizon Communications under
2975-609: Is typically easiest when using the GSM standard, as it is used by over 80% of the world's mobile operators, and most devices support it. However, even then, there may be problems, since countries have allocated different frequency bands for GSM communications (there are two groups of countries: most GSM countries use 900/1800 MHz, but the United States and some other countries in the Americas have allocated 850/1900 MHz): for
3060-632: The Federal Communications Commission approved the Bell Atlantic–GTE merger on June 16, 2000, creating the largest wireless company in the United States. Verizon Wireless held this market position until Cingular Wireless acquired AT&T Wireless Services in 2004. Throughout the 2000s, Verizon acquired several wireless phone companies and assets across the country, including West Virginia Wireless in 2006; Ramcell in 2007; Rural Cellular Corporation and SureWest Communications , both in 2008. Also in 2008, Verizon struck
3145-576: The Rankin-Bass Christmas specials. The campaign included a MySpace page , and Campbell-Ewald Digital created The Man Cave with its own web site . The fourth and fifth commercials features employees of other carriers' mall stores trying to convince Chad to end My Circle with $ 8.00. The sixth has Chad giving RAZRs as Christmas gifts to them. Since this service and advertising campaign started, other carriers started adding similar services. For example, T-Mobile introduced "My Faves" in
3230-529: The fall of 2006. In 2010, markets sold to Verizon Wireless aired a special commercial with both Chad and Paul Marcarelli as the real "Verizon Guy". Alltel and Chad produced a Christmas edition commercial later that year for remaining Alltel markets, featured at Longbranch Coffee House located in Carbondale, Illinois. Roaming Roaming is a wireless telecommunication term typically used with mobile devices, such as mobile phones . It refers to
3315-642: The 2010s, including the purchases of some Plateau Wireless markets in 2012 and Golden State Cellular's operator in 2014. Majority owner Verizon Communications became sole owner of its wireless business in 2014, when it bought Vodafone's 45 percent stake. Vodafone received $ 58.9 billion cash, $ 60.2 billion in stock and $ 11 billion in other consideration. An article in The New York Times estimated Verizon Wireless' valuation at about $ 290 billion. In late 2014, it became known that Verizon Wireless uses deep packet inspection for server-side insertion of
3400-559: The AT&;T network by midyear 2014. The transition completed in February 2015 with all Alltel customers becoming a part of the AT&T network. In early 2016, AT&T dissolved Alltel Wireless. In 1943, the Allied Telephone Company , a small business specializing in installing telephone poles and cabling for telephone companies across Arkansas , was founded by Charles Miller and Hugh Willbourn, Jr. In 1945, they opened
3485-622: The European Parliament and Commission in May of the same year came into force. It abolished all roaming charges within the EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. Countries that do not share a supra-national authority have also begun examining the provision of international roaming services. In April 2011, Singapore and Malaysia announced that they had agreed with operators to reduce voice and SMS rates for roaming between their two countries. In August 2012, Australia and New Zealand published
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3570-588: The IREG testing is to test the proper functioning of the established communication links, the TADIG testing is to check the billability of the calls. The usage by a subscriber in a visited network is captured in a file called the TAP (Transferred Account Procedure) for GSM / CIBER (Cellular Intercarrier Billing Exchange Record) for CDMA, AMPS etc... file and is transferred to the home network. A TAP/CIBER file contains details of
3655-557: The NFL, only Verizon Wireless subscribers could stream NFL telecasts to devices with screens 7 inches (18 cm) or less in size. This contract ended after the 2017 NFL season ; Verizon agreed to a new five-year, non-exclusive digital rights agreement, which removes the device class exclusivity, and focuses more upon distributing its streams and other enhanced digital content via its portfolio of internet media brands , rather than being exclusive to Verizon Wireless subscribers. As part of
3740-562: The U.S. population, which in the first half of 2024 won top honors in five out of eight categories of the RootMetrics RootScore Reports, along with the most awards in both state and metro testing. Notably, Verizon won the United States Overall and Data RootScore Awards outright, along with outright wins for accessibility and video performance. Verizon Wireless offers mobile phone services through
3825-694: The U.S., whereas others define it as anywhere within the carrier's network. In the UK, the main network providers generally send text alerts to advise users that they will now be charged international rates so it is clear when this will apply. UK data roaming charges abroad vary depending on the nature of the phone agreement (either pay as you go or monthly contracts ). Some carriers, including T-Mobile and Virgin Mobile , do not allow pay as you go customers to use international roaming without pre-purchase of an international "add on" or "bolt on." An operator intending to provide roaming services to visitors publishes
3910-447: The United States were primarily with Verizon and Sprint until the completion of the migration of all customers to the AT&T network. After Alltel's November 2004 announcement that Campbell-Ewald of Detroit would be their primary advertising agency, Alltel used lookalikes of rival cell phone companies' primary advertising characters along with Alltel's spokesman, played by comedian Chad Brokaw. After competing networks complained,
3995-468: The ability to move from one mobile operator to another in the same country. For example, a postpaid subscriber of T-Mobile USA who is allowed to roam on AT&T Mobility and/or the regional carriers Viaero Wireless and U.S. Cellular 's networks would have national roaming rights; prepaid providers on the other hand typically only allow a more restricted national roaming ability for cost reasons. For commercial and license reasons, this type of roaming
4080-419: The access possibilities. Using the example of WLAN/GSM roaming, the following scenarios can be differentiated (cf. GSM Association Permanent Reference Document AA.39 ): Although these user/network scenarios focus on roaming from GSM network operator's networks, clearly roaming can be bi-directional, i.e. from public WLAN operators to GSM networks. Traditional roaming in networks of the same standard, e.g. from
4165-515: The agreement without having to pay their roaming fee. The agreement was signed in April 2019. There are no additional charges, just like in EU's "Roaming like home" project. In November 2021, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Chad and Gabon committed to bilateral agreements to lift charges and cut interconnection tariffs. This type refers to the ability of moving from one region to another region inside national coverage of
4250-441: The applications to be "bloatware" that are sometimes redundant to applications already included with the device's operating system. The NFL Mobile app allows Verizon Wireless subscribers to stream National Football League games and NFL Network on their devices. While previously a subscription-based service, NFL Mobile was made free to all subscribers beginning in the 2015 NFL season . As part of an exclusivity agreement with
4335-499: The calls made by the subscriber viz. location, calling party, called party, time of call and duration, etc. The TAP/CIBER files are rated as per the tariffs charged by the visited operator. The home operator then bills these calls to its subscribers and may charge a mark-up/tax applicable locally. As recently many carriers launched own retail rate plans and bundles for Roaming, TAP records are generally used for wholesale Inter-Operators settlements only Roaming fees are typically charged on
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#17328022656614420-581: The capping of roaming within the EEA, the Commission replaced the law in 2012. Under the 2012 Regulation, retail roaming capping charges expired in 2017 and wholesale capping charges expired in 2022. In mid-2009 there was also an €0.11 (excluding tax) maximum price for SMS text message included into this regulation. On 11 June 2013, the European Commission voted to end mobile roaming charges for
4505-598: The company's wireless and wireline businesses were combined into a single organization. On December 9, 2005, Alltel announced that it would become a wireless-only company, simultaneously merging and building a spin-off company for its wireline services. The wireline services business of Alltel merged with Valor Telecom and was named Windstream Communications on April 10, 2006. The merger-spinoff process ended July 17, 2006 when Windstream began operations. On May 20, 2007, Alltel announced an agreement to be sold to two private-equity firms: TPG Capital and GS Capital Partners. Under
4590-408: The data-only LTE network. This also allows for simultaneous voice and data services, something that is unavailable on traditional CDMA2000 calls. Along with VoLTE, Verizon also announced support for HD Voice , which provides higher-quality audio for VoLTE calls, and native Video Calling for Android phones. In March 2016, Verizon enabled support for Wi-Fi Calling, which allows calls to be placed over
4675-702: The deal, the two firms paid $ 71.50 a share in cash, or $ 27.5 billion, a 10% premium over Alltel's May 18, 2007 closing price. 1990 1997 1998 2000 2002 2003 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2013 2016 Alltel's networks consisted of analog and digital systems operating primarily on the 850 MHz (3GPP2 Band Class 0) cellular band, much like Verizon Wireless . Native Alltel markets consisted of both analog ( AMPS ) and digital ( CDMA ) technologies. Virtually 100 percent of markets had been outfitted with 3G 1xEV-DO digital technology, which allows for additional battery life and faster download times when using Internet or BREW-based applications. Alltel posted
4760-498: The emerging global standard. In December 2010, Verizon Wireless launched a fledgling 4G LTE network in 39 markets. By December 2011, only a year after launch, 200 million Americans were covered with 4G LTE, in 190 markets. As of 2016 , 98% of the U.S. was covered with LTE, and 92% of all data traffic was on LTE. In 2012, the service provider bought spectrum from the country's biggest cable companies, including Comcast , and Spectrum ( Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks at
4845-704: The first half of 2024 ranked Verizon's network as the best in overall national performance, network accessibility, data performance, video performance, and tied for best text performance. The following is a list of 4G LTE and 5G NR frequency bands which Verizon employs in the United States. Verizon's CDMA network was shut down on December 31, 2022. The following chart lists the networks that Verizon previously operated. Verizon Wireless offers certain applications and services that are exclusive to its subscribers. Many of these apps are pre-loaded on Verizon devices—primarily Android smartphones. The company has received criticism for this practice, as users and critics have viewed
4930-489: The first time. Following a European Commission vote on 15 December 2016, roaming charges within the European Union were to be abolished by June 2017. While the European Commission (EC) believed that ending roaming charges would stimulate entrepreneurship and trade, mobile operators had their doubts about the changes. On 15 June 2017, Regulation (EU) 2016/2286, nicknamed "Roam like at Home" and having been signed by
5015-501: The idle state (connected to the network, but with no active call). It occurs for example when a call is made to a roaming cell phone. Signaling process: In order that a subscriber is able to register on to a visited network, a roaming agreement needs to be in place between the visited network and the home network. This agreement is established after a series of testing processes called IREG (International Roaming Expert Group) and TADIG (Transferred Account Data Interchange Group). While
5100-477: The increasing popularity and availability of "free roaming" service plan, where there is no cost difference between on and off network usage. The benefits of getting service from a mobile phone operator, that is not local to a user, can include cheaper rates, or features and phones that are not available on their local mobile phone operator, or to get to a particular mobile phone operator's network to get free calls to other customers of that mobile phone operator through
5185-450: The majority of Alltel Wireless in a deal valued at $ 28.1 billion. The merger was approved by the Federal Communications Commission on the condition that Verizon divest 105 Alltel markets. On May 8, 2009, AT&T announced it would acquire 79 of the divested wireless properties, including licenses, network assets, and 1.5 million current subscribers, primarily in rural areas across 18 states. On April 26, 2010, Atlantic Tele-Network acquired
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#17328022656615270-506: The mobile operator ("internal roaming"). Initially, operators may have provided commercial offers restricted to a region (sometimes to a town). Due to the success of GSM and the decrease in cost, regional roaming is rarely offered to clients except in nations with wide geographic areas like the US, Russia, India, etc., in which there are a number of regional operators. In Russia even country-wide operators charge different tariffs depending on whether
5355-470: The name Verizon Wireless . In a 2019 reorganization, Verizon moved the wireless products and services into the divisions Verizon Consumer and Verizon Business , and stopped using the Verizon Wireless name. Verizon has 114.2 million subscribers as of September 30, 2024. It currently has the largest network in the United States with their LTE network covering 70% of the United States. The company
5440-457: The name. A number of the standards making industry bodies have come together to define and achieve interoperability between the technologies as a means to achieve inter-standards roaming. This is currently an ongoing effort. Mobile signature roaming allows an access point to get a mobile signature from any end-user, even if the AP and the end-user have not contracted a commercial relationship with
5525-423: The new entrant has time to build up its own network), or where mobile network infrastructure has been destroyed by natural or man-made means, such as during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine where Ukrainian mobile operators had to quickly implement national roaming with each other to compensate for network infrastructure destroyed in said invasion. In a country like India, where the number of regional operators
5610-443: The option of opting out, and since April 1, 2015, Verizon has allowed customers to opt-out, either online or by calling a special phone number. In August 2016, Verizon hired Ronan Dunne , the former head of British provider O2 , as the new president of its wireless business. In September 2016, Comcast confirmed that it planned to launch a mobile service, using Verizon's network as an MVNO , in mid-2017. In February 2017, in
5695-437: The population of the United States can access their 4G network. However, OpenSignal's crowdsourced data showed 4G coverage of 95.9%. Before Verizon's LTE network was launched, the company operated an exclusively CDMA2000 network (the other major CDMA2000 carrier in the US being Sprint ). Verizon began its initial tests for the 4G LTE network in 2008 in order to move from older-generation mobile communications technologies to
5780-500: The pre-paid carrier Visible in Denver Colorado, which Verizon funds and owns. On June 8, 2018, Verizon announced that Hans Vestberg had been chosen to become CEO on August 1, 2018. In August 2018, the fire department of Santa Clara County, California , filed evidence in a lawsuit seeking the reinstatement of net neutrality policies, which accused Verizon of throttling an "unlimited" wireless data plan associated with
5865-403: The promotional campaign featured this notice on television and the website: "Our lawyers would like to inform you some of the characters you see here are not associated with Alltel. They are look-alikes. The characters, not our lawyers." In the first commercial, at an Alltel store, Alltel representative Chad spoke to representatives of five competitors to his circle . A second commercial was set in
5950-578: The recommendations of the final report. On 19 February 2020, Bolivia , Colombia , Ecuador and Peru voted, through the auspice of the Andean Community , to eliminate roaming fees amongst themselves. The agreement is set to start in 2022. On 1 July 2021, Serbia , Albania , Montenegro , Bosnia & Herzegovina , North Macedonia and Kosovo abolished roaming fees as part of Mini Schengen project, allowing SIM holders on those countries to use their domestic packages on another country in
6035-479: The remaining 26 divested Alltel markets, including licenses, network assets and 800,000 subscribers. These remaining markets continued to be operated by Allied Wireless , a subsidiary of ATN, under the Alltel name. On September 20, 2013, AT&T announced they had completed the acquisition of Alltel from Atlantic Tele-Network. AT&T immediately began plans to upgrade the former Alltel network and to move customers to
6120-405: The requirements of that mobile phone operator, they will be denied service. In order to permanently roam customers may use a false address and online billing , or a relative or friend's address which is in the required area, and a 3rd party billing option. Most mobile phone operators discourage or prohibit permanent roaming since they must pay per minute rates to the network operator their customer
6205-443: The same MSSP . Otherwise, an AP would have to build commercial terms with as many MSSPs as possible, and this might be a cost burden. This means that a mobile signature transaction issued by an Application Provider should be able to reach the appropriate MSSP, and this should be transparent for the AP. Network elements belonging to the same Operator but located in different areas (a typical situation where assignment of local licenses
6290-410: The system to marketing partners. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has called on Verizon to terminate the program, calling it a "profound violation of trust", expressing concern over abuse by third parties, and questioning the legality of Verizon modifying their users' outgoing data without offering them the possibility of a full opt-out. In January 2015, Verizon announced they would give customers
6375-406: The tariffs that would be charged in their network at least sixty days prior to its implementation under normal situations. The visited operator tariffs may include tax, discounts etc. and would be based on duration in case of voice calls. For data calls, the charging may be based on the data volume sent and received. Some operators also charge a separate fee for call setup i.e. for the establishment of
6460-546: The technology would allow at least 50% higher LTE data speeds on supported devices. By the end of 2019, Verizon had launched 5G service in 30 cities across the U.S. Verizon's 5G network is deployed on millimeter wave spectrum (mmWave). While fast, the high-band spectrum Verizon uses has limited range and high penetration loss. In October 2020, during a virtual event unveiling the iPhone 12 , Verizon announced that it had begun to widely deploy 5G service on sub-6 GHz spectrum, branded as "Nationwide 5G". This service has
6545-422: The theme music " Come and Get Your Love ". The parodied competitors, called "Sales Guys" are perpetually frustrated by their failures and less popularity, even going so far as to harass and threaten him, albeit with less than effective results. The Sales Guys are played by professional actors Matthew Brent ( Verizon ), Scott Halberstadt ( Cingular/AT&T ), Ian Gould ( T-Mobile ), and Michael Busch ( Sprint ), who
6630-509: The time) to improve its data network across the U.S. The new capacity allowed Verizon to launch what it calls XLTE (LTE on Band 4) in 2013, providing more capacity in congested and well-populated markets. Because 4G LTE is a data-transmitting network, when it launched, Verizon customers' voice calls were still carried over the company's CDMA2000 network, which was developed for 3G cellphones. In September 2014, Verizon launched voice over LTE (VoLTE) ; this allowed voice calls to transmit via
6715-443: The use of mobile networks outside its original country can lead to significant billing by its original mobile data operator without an addon to their current phone service. This type refers to roaming between two standards. This term is now widely used in mobile communications where especially CDMA customers want to use their phone in areas where there is no CDMA network or there is no roaming agreement in place to support roaming on
6800-719: The used standard. In Europe there are hardly any CDMA networks. Most CDMA customers originate from the Americas or the Far East. In order to enable them to roam in Europe inter-standard roaming is the solution. The CDMA customers arriving in Europe can register on the available GSM networks. Since mobile communication technologies have evolved independently across continents, there is significant challenge in achieving seamless roaming across these technologies. Typically, these technologies were implemented in accordance with technological standards laid down by different industry bodies and hence
6885-480: The users are within or outside of their "home region". A number of legislative attempts to remove the "internal roaming" failed due to opposition from operators. Following the annexation of Crimea in 2014 the Russian operators are facing significant criticism as they do not offer their services inside Crimea directly, even though formally it's recognized as a regular federal subject inside Russia. This type refers to
6970-400: The visiting subscriber, the roaming agreements typically can comprise minimal safety standards, as e.g. location update procedures or financial security or warranty procedures. The details of the roaming process differ among types of cellular networks, but in general, the process resembles the following: Location updating is the mechanism that is used to determine the location of an MS in
7055-722: The wake of competition from Sprint and T-Mobile , and initiatives to expand the capacity and improve the quality of its network by using macrocells and supporting carrier aggregation, Verizon announced that it would bring back an "unlimited" data plan (subject to throttling in heavy network areas after 22 GB of usage). Verizon's decision not to restrict the bitrate of video services prompted Sprint and T-Mobile to remove similar restrictions from their own plans. In March 2017, Verizon announced that all their Android phones will have AppFlash, to help users find content and services across different apps. Critics spoke harshly against it. In May 2018, former Verizon executive Miguel Quiroga launched
7140-509: Was later replaced by Adam Herschman. Each representative wears a shirt with the color of the company they represent, as well as name tags to represent their company. Most ads in 2007 had the Cingular/AT&;T guy wearing two name tags—one each for Cingular & AT&T—while that brand was transiting to AT&T . As of 2008, they added a snobbish wizard into the ads. The Christmas 2007/2008 ads uses stop-motion animation , parodying
7225-680: Was released in April 2013 initially for Android phones, followed the next month by a launch for iOS . Verizon Messages, otherwise known as Message+, is an alternative text messaging app that additionally allows messages to be synchronized between multiple devices. VZ Navigator is a subscription-based maps and navigation service which provides turn-by-turn navigation , crowdsourced traffic data , weather, events and entertainment listings, gas prices, roadside assistance, 2D and 3D views. The Verizon Support & Protection app provides technical support services, lost device location, and on Android, antivirus functionality. Verizon Family Locator
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