Verizon Trying to Leverage iPad and Testing New Pricing Strategies

On Wednesday, Verizon demonstrated the power of the app, announcing plans to make it generally available by next year. If this happens, the carrier’s FiOS TV service will be available on the iPad, making the TV experience as mobile as the tablet device from Apple.

According to a Daily Tech piece highlighted that the biggest obstacle for Verizon right now is getting content providers on board. Verizon doesn’t plan to offer the app until it has a powerful portfolio of content providers agreeing to the benefits of its service.

Once the new service is in place, Verizon subscribers will be able to rent or buy movies and content through the company’s website or a set-top box. They can also download and watch the content on as many as five PCs and/or mobile devices such as the Droid X, Droid 2, BlackBerry Stor, and Windows Mobile 6.5 devices. While we wait out the news on the iPad app, Verizon has announced a carrier test of a $99 unlimited everything plan. The plan is designed to directly compete with Sprint’s Simply Everything plan, also priced at $99 per month.

According to a Verizon spokesperson, the limited-time promotion will be available only on single lines. Once tiered data plans are rolled out, don’t expect the unlimited aspect of the deal to stick around.

Regardless of the outcome, the fact that Verizon is testing options means that it is experimenting with some changes to its pricing strategies. The company has often been branded as the “luxury mobile provider” compared to players like T-Mobile, which offers an unlimited everything plan on its no-contract Even More Plus for $79.99 per month.Verizon also appears worried about competition from discount carriers like MetroPCS, Cricket and Boost as the company is testing a $50 unlimited prepaid plan in the Southeast.

In other Verizon news, the company is making headway in cloud computing for credit card transactions. Verizon Computing as a Service, or CaaS, the company's cloud computing solution delivered from Verizon cloud centers in the U.S. and Europe, is the first cloud-based solution to successfully complete the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard audit for storing, processing and transmitting credit card information.

Source: TMCnet.com

BT goes on broadband price offensive

BT outlined an aggressive pricing strategy for its new superfast broadband service yesterday in a move it hopes will enable it to poach rivals' customers.

Britain's leading fixed-line telephone company said consumers would have to pay £20 per month for its high-speed broadband service based on optical fibre.

The £20 offer is £8 cheaper than a similar broadband service provided by Virgin Media, the cable television operator and currently BT's only rival in high-speed internet access.

UK broadband speeds lag behind those in many other industrialised countries. BT is responding by spending £1.5bn on a new fibre network.

John Petter, an executive at BT's retail unit, said the pricing of the superfast broadband service would ensure it became a mass-market phenomenon.

"The name of the game for BT is getting customers to come back to BT for all their services," he added.

At 29 per cent, BT's share of the broadband market is relatively small compared with many of Europe's other former fixed-line phone monopolies.

BT's fibre network will provide customers with download speeds of up to 40 megabits per second, which is 10 times faster than the current industry average.

The network will support the increasingly popular activity of watching video in high definition.

Analysts say BT's aggressive pricing may prompt rivals such as Carphone Warehouse and BSkyB to sign wholesale deals with the company. If agreements are reached, these two groups would get access to BT's fibre network in order to supply high-speed broadband to their customers.

BT's fibre network will run past 40 per cent of homes by mid-2012, mainly in towns and cities. The company is willing to consider extending this to 90 per cent of households with public funding.

The government has proposed a 50p per month tax on telephone lines to finance superfast broadband infrastructure in rural areas. The Conservatives have opposed the levy.

By Andrew Parker, Telecoms Editor Published: January 22 2010 02:00 FF.com