The news reports about “Verizon Wi-Fi” are breathless today as if this is the thing we’ve all been waiting for. Here’s an excerpt from the press release: “Verizon Wireless introduced Verizon Wi-Fi, a way for Mobile Broadband customers to access thousands of Wi-Fi hotspots at no additional charge and to move easily from the nation’s most reliable 3G wireless network to those hotspots.”
Sounds good, right? Until you see what is required to gain access to “Verizon Wi-Fi” (from the Verizon press release):
- To take advantage of Verizon Wi-Fi, customers must have a monthly Mobile Broadband or GlobalAccess plan;
- They must also have a Verizon Wi-Fi supported device, including a Mobile Broadband USB modem, PC Card, ExpressCard®, Verizon Wireless MiFi™ 2200 Intelligent Mobile Hotspot, or a notebook or netbook with Mobile Broadband Built-In running Windows® 7, 2000, XP or Vista (uh oh, no Macs!)
When you go to the list of devices supported by Verizon’s flavor of Wi-Fi, it is very limited indeed.
I don’t think you can even compared this to Cablevision’s free Wi-Fi offering to its customers on the East Coast who can connect no matter what device they use.
What a joke.
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Typical telco mentality! Here is a new great service you can use. Oh! by the way, only if you use “OUR” limited list of devices. Many of which…are crap.