VZW gooses data offerings: Unlimited surfing, hosted e-mail on tap

Verizon Wireless is hoping to spur uptake of the wireless Web with a new, all-you-can-surf plan for smartphone users.
The carrier introduced a $30-per-month plan that gives smartphone users “an unlimited data allowance” for e-mail and the mobile Internet. The plan supports as many as 10 personal e-mail accounts from providers such as Yahoo Inc., AOL L.L.C. and Microsoft Corp.’s Windows Live, and is available on three devices: the HTC Corp. SMT5800, the UTStarcom XV6800 and the Motorola Inc.’s Q9m.
Other devices will be added “within the next few months,” Verizon Wireless said in a prepared statement. The carrier previously charged $45 per month for unlimited Web access from smartphones.
The carrier also rolled out a mobile e-mail service for small and medium-sized businesses. Hosted VZEmail Services, as the offering is dubbed, is powered by Microsoft’s Exchange Server and gives users the ability to synch e-mail messages automatically to Windows Mobile-enabled devices as well as synchronizing calendars, contacts and tasks.
The carrier offers a basic plan for $8 per month and a premium for $14 per month. Both plans support POP3 and IMAP e-mail protocols; the premium plan also includes 100 megabytes of storage and allows customers to use any Verizon Wireless Web device to access e-mail and PIM data via Outlook Mobile Access.
“Our research has shown that small businesses, entrepreneurs and professionals from an array of industries need e-mail pushed directly to their handsets so they can be responsive to their customers while out of the office,” said Robert Miller, Verizon Wireless’s VP of marketing.