more on Verizon's Voice Mailboxes Now Give 'Shout Out' to Verizon Wireless Phones When New Messages Arrive

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: "Patrick W. Gilmore" <patrick () ianai net>
Date: June 10, 2005 2:13:24 PM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Cc: "Patrick W. Gilmore" <patrick () ianai net>
Subject: Re: [IP] more on Verizon's Voice Mailboxes Now Give 'Shout  
Out' to Verizon Wireless Phones When New Messages Arrive


On Jun 10, 2005, at 2:04 PM, David Farber wrote:


> Verizon and VZW are fundamentally separate companies with separate
> infrastructure, selling to different audiences. *I* can't get Verizon
> home service, for example, even though I could get a VZW phone.
>
> VZW thinks that text messages are worth a lot of money, instead of
> realizing that they are a nice way to get a little extra revenue from
> an otherwise underutilized network.
>
> They probably also still think that digital watches are a pretty  
> cool idea.
>
> I suspect that making this happen involved a lot of negotiation
> around how much accounting to do between the corporate entities,
> and just how complicated it was to change the billing system to
> manage it.

Possibly.  But Verizon home could have offered it without any  
negotiation a long time ago, and not just to VZ mobile phones.  You  
might have to pay for an incoming SMS, but lots of people would  
happily pay for the service.

For a few bucks a month, I get a "find-me" number which SMSes me when  
someone calls, their number, their name, and even their city.  It  
also e-mails the voicemails to me, takes faxes & e-mails me PDFs,  
gives me a toll-free number, etc., etc.

This is all trivial to do.  Some people do it themselves with a $500  
PC and free software.  The fact that Verizon as a company took so  
long to do it speaks volumes for the telecommunications industry.

--
TTFN,
patrick


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