Verizon probably looks pretty good to its former customers now
1. Former Verizon Communications customers who are now served by Frontier Communications are struggling with unreliable service, according to multiple reports. Problems range from the inability to access online banking to a failure to reach 911 in an emergency.
The California State Legislature has set a hearing for May 18, to discuss reports of Internet, telephone and cable outages coming from Frontier’s new customers. Frontier started operating the former Verizon businesses in California on April 1.
Verizon sold its wireline assets in California, Texas and Florida to Frontier Communications for $10.5 billion, part of the carrier’s plan to focus resources on wireless services and content. Many of the 39,000 Verizon workers who are currently on strike are part of Verizon’s wireline business.
Frontier took on more than 10,000 former Verizon employees as part of the acquisition, which also included 3.7 million voice connections; approximately 2.2 million high-speed data customers; approximately 1.6 million FiOS Internet customers; and approximately 1.2 million FiOS video customers.
California is not the only state in which the transition has led to service disruptions. Florida customers are also reporting landline outages.
2. Sprint launched a new pricing plan for enterprise customers that will allow businesses to share buckets of data. A company with as few as 10 mobile lines can participate in the plan, sharing as little as 20 gigabytes of data. A business that buys at least 300 GB of data per month gets unlimited lines.
All four of the nationwide carriers offer shareable data for business customers. Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile US all offer enterprise plans that allow companies to share data. Sprint claims that its new plan is simpler and more flexible than those of its rivals, as well as more affordable.
3. HTC said its first quarter revenue fell 64% and profits were down 78% versus the year-ago quarter. The Taiwanese smartphone maker has been struggling for at least two years now, despite persistent positive reviews for its products. HTC is rumored to be the company Google has chosen to build its upcoming Nexus phones.
4. Google and Oracle are back in court today, arguing about whether Google violated copyright law when it used Oracle’s application programming interfaces in the Android operating system. Those APIs were part of the Java programming language, which Oracle acquired when it bought Sun Microsystems. APIs have generally not been covered by copyright law, so if Oracle wins the case could have a significant impact on the software industry. It could also cost Google billions of dollars, as Oracle is asking the jury for $9.3 billion in damages.
5. PCIA’s 2016 Wireless Infrastructure Show is two weeks away. Register here for the show, and sign up here for the May 23 Women’s Wireless Leadership Forum reception.
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