Subway station internet service is coming to Verizon and Sprint customers. Eventually. Yesterday Boingo Wireless announced that it had struck a deal with Transit Wireless, which manages cell service underground, to bring its wi-fi services to customers underground. Because not everyone has AT&T or T-Mobile! more ›

Hey, America, are you too busy watching Dancing With The Stars reruns to be bothered to pick up the phone and order a meat-lovers burrito for yourself? Great! Just hop on your remote and order away, without all the fuss of pausing the TV and actually speaking to a real human being. more ›

Gripe all you want about hidden fees and the rage-inspiring "music" you hear when on hold (and we will!) but a Verizon worker who saved a Brooklyn man from a basement blaze earns the company some kudos. Verizon employee Steven Baudille saw smoke pouring out of a Midwood building and stopped his van to help. After helping two cops kick in a window, he pulled the man to safety. "I reached in and saw an arm. The guy grabbed my arm and we dragged him out," Baudille told the Daily News. more ›

A Verizon worker was electrocuted to death earlier today in a tragic accident in Brownsville. The victim, whose name has not yet been released, was working from a bucket truck on a power line above the intersection of Christopher and New Lotts Avenues around 11:30 a.m. when something went terribly wrong. A wire appears to have gone loose and come into contact with the back of his neck, electrocuted him. more ›

Amid reports of violence on the picket lines, the Communications Workers of America and the IBEW announced that their Verizon workers will return to their jobs on Tuesday, ending a two-week strike that was the country's longest in four years. "We have reached agreement with Verizon on how bargaining will proceed and how it will be restructured," the CWA statement reads, "The major issues remain to be discussed, but overall, issues now are focused and narrowed." more ›

As the 45,000-workers strong Verizon strike finishes up its second week, union picketers are reporting violent confrontations with Verizon managers and scabs. On Thursday, one Communication Workers Of America union member was allegedly assaulted by a Verizon manager at the Suffolk County National Bank, Newsday reports. more ›

45,000 Verizon landline workers have been on strike since Sunday, in the largest strike America's seen in years. The unions and Big Red are locked in a bitter battle over proposed cuts to union benefits, which executives claim are necessary because of the bad economy and the company's less lucrative landline division. Unions, of course, scoff at that premise—pointing to the executives' high salaries and the landline division's profit increases—and are digging in for a long fight. In this video, you can see they mean business (warning: the worker's salty talk maybe NSFW): more ›

With Netflix breaking the back of the working man, and Time Warner content to remain a cold, unkind monopoly, Verizon is attempting to distribute justice/FiOS to the denizens of Flatbush. But what if all those delicious channels and movies came with the price of a 20-foot eyesore that may or may not transform you into a fetus encased in an orb of light? more ›

Finally, some muscle to match the unabated monopolies of the telecom industry: Beth Israel Medical Center is suing Verizon for overbilling them $9 million for services they didn't want in the first place. According to the complaint, they got away with it because of their confusing billing scheme, and "Verizon's guide and website are designed to be impenetrable to its customers." But Big Red isn't paying up, and continues to charge an 18 percent interest rate on the hospital's unpaid bills until the dispute is settled. more ›

As you may have heard, today Verizon is starting to charge new customers for data usage. Big Red has been planning this for a while now, following in the footsteps of AT&T and T Mobile (Sprint is now the only major provider to offer free unlimited data). Those who already have contracts with Verizon with unlimited data plans will have their unlimited status grandfathered in, but newcomers will be required to choose from a three-tiered pricing plan: $30 for 2GB of data, $50 for 5GB and $80 for 10GB. more ›

Over a year after admitting its NYC service sucks, AT&T has apparently made good on plans to improve cell phone service for the Big Apple. Crain's reports, "As part of an initiative implemented long before last week's merger deal with T-Mobile, the No. 2 wireless carrier will soon announce a series of just-completed upgrades to its broadband service in the media capital." more ›

The much-anticipated and praised Verizon iPhone 4 is no longer available for preorder because they sold out during two hours; CEO Dan Mead said, "In just our first two hours, we had already sold more phones than any first day launch in our history. When you consider these initial orders were placed between the hours of 3 a.m. and 5 a.m., it is an incredible success story." Apparently this has surpassed any other Verizon smartphone debut. The Verizon iPhone 4 goes on sale next week. more ›

We'd been wondering what Apple had up its sleeve and now would you lookie here, Verizon has gone and announced a special media event for Tuesday. No details have been announced, but folks are about 95% sure we're going to be getting that mythical smartphone, the Verizon iPhone (the VeriPhone?). And the fact that Gizmodo did not get an invite certainly helps that argument. Of course, there is still a good chance that Apple will be making its own separate announcement later in the month. But in the meantime, Verizon customers can commence getting excited. Or not! more ›

The masses of iPhone holders that are fed up with dropped calls and poor service from the gadget's only service provider, AT&T, will be happy to know that Apple will start producing Verizon Wireless iPhones by late 2010. That's this year! The Wall Street Journal reports that "the new iPhone would be similar in design to the iPhone 4 currently sold by AT&T Inc. but would be based on an alternative wireless technology called CDMA used by Verizon. The phone, for which Qualcomm Inc. is providing a key chip, is expected to be released in the first quarter of next year." Also, there's already an iPhone 5 on the way—though Apple isn't commenting on any of this. more ›

Due to a malfunction in Verizon's network, both landlines and AT&T cell phones (oh no, the iPhone!) connected to the network have reportedly been out of service. Verizon Communications Inc. says the "digital cross connect" that connects calls on the East side of Manhattan from 20th Street to 40th Street is at fault, and they hope to fix the problem this afternoon. According to the Wall Street Journal, the equipment was knocked out from this weekend's storms. more ›

AT&T is claiming they've just completed a project that has improved wireless service in New York City—have you noticed a difference? According to the AP, the company "has given more room on the airwaves to its 3G network, used by the iPhone and some other phones, in the boroughs of Manhattan, Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens." In doing so, service quality has allgedly steadily improved over the past six months—meaning less dropped calls and improved voice and data performance. more ›

With just five days until the celebration, the controversy over soap opera star Osvaldo Rios' participation in the Puerto Rican Day Parade is heating up. Rios served three months in prison in 2004 for abusing his girlfriend in 1996, and community leaders say he isn't the type of person that should be representing the city's Puerto Ricans. Now, Chicago Rep. Luis Gutierrez has backed out as "state marshal" of the parade, and Verizon has withdrawn its sponsorship. more ›

A jury awarded a Brooklyn man $40 million after he was "left brain damaged and partially paralyzed" when a Verizon truck hit him a few years ago. According to the Post, "Matthew Falcone, 53, was in a coma for weeks following the September 2006 incident in which he was hit by a Verizon vehicle going 50 mph in a 30-mph zone on Stillwell Avenue in Gravesend." Verizon tried to argue that Falcone was at fault when he "stuck his head out into the road from behind an elevated train pillar" and that only a side-view mirror struck him. But the jury saw "photos of the truck's shattered windshield and headlights, which indicated the collision was much more severe." Verizon may appeal the decision. more ›

Navin R. Johnson's overwhelming joy over his "spontaneous publicity" on page 73 of the phone book may fall on deaf ears to children of the digital age now that Verizon is planning to stop production of the residential White Pages. The state's dominant local phone company asked legislators yesterday to allow them to end their automatic delivery of the directory, which could save up to 5,000 tons of paper a year. One building concierge said, “We end up throwing them away. Everyone goes online anyways." more ›

Apple is developing a new iPhone to debut this summer; it's said to be thinner with a faster processor... but will it give customers what they really want: a new carrier? According to the Wall Street Journal, the company is working on producing a new iPhone that would make the gadget available through Verizon, and other CDMA carriers. The question is when will it be available to the public (some say this summer, some September, some 2012). Their exclusive arrangement with AT&T is coming to an end—which will certainly make many users happy; their service has been iBysmal in New York (for real) and other metro areas. more ›

In our advanced age, street pay phones are often thought of as grimy relics of a bygone era—something between a public toilet and a closet-sized museum. Still, measured up against touch-screens and T9, they seem incredibly romantic. One pay phone outside of a Queens courthouse still swallows its fair share of quarters, and a Times reporter spent a week eavesdropping from the sidewalk. As one might expect, lots of people called after their run-ins with the law. “I do drugs,” said one man. “I got caught with them.” Others conduct their shady dealings. “Nah,” one young man said after hanging up, “you didn’t see me use that phone.” “Loneliness, loneliness, loneliness,” responded another man when asked why he was calling. He'd tried to reach his son, but was met by an automated response. See a map of the city’s payphones by zip code after the break. more ›

Verizon announced today that it will waive long-distance fees on all calls to Haiti. That means that whomever you're calling—rescue workers, earthquake victims, or Scientologists—you won't have a hefty phone bill. "We want to help alleviate some of the agony being experienced by our customers trying to reach loved ones in Haiti," said Susan Retta, a Verizon executive, in a statement. The offer works on both cell phones and landlines, and the phone company will even give refunds for past calls after January 12th. Okay, it's only good up until the end of the month, but Haiti's sure to be back on its feet in a couple weeks, right? more ›

While AT&T takes a lot of heat for their horrific service here in New York, Verizon gets criticized constantly for putting up the most loathed building in the city — which practically sucks the soul out of the skyline (we are looking at it right now). more ›

A Queens man is suing Verizon for employing a repairman who assaulted him in December 2008 at his Sunnyside apartment. Aubrey Isakson says he became suspicious when the worker, Robert Benjamin, wanted to access his apartment, because Verizon had told him that wouldn't be necessary. When Isakson asked to see some identification, Benjamin went berserk, slapping his ID card in his face, saying, "You want to know my name? Here's my name." According to Isakson, Benjamin then punched him repeatedly, breaking his glasses, and squeezed him around the neck, pressing him up against the wall: "He's prepared to kill me. That's all I could think of." Isakson broke free and scrambled downstairs, fracturing his ankle along the way. Benjamin, who had been chasing Isakson, was subdued by a neighbor and arrested, but the Queens DA agreed to dismiss the case if Benjamin stayed out of trouble for six months. A spokesperson for Verizon tells the Post, "In the months since this incident, his conduct has been blameless. As a result, we will not take further action." The kicker? Two days after the fight, Verizon's technical service department called Isakson to say they fixed the problem and didn't actually need to send their skull-cracking repairman in the first place! more ›

Okay so we're all familiar with the Verizon eyesore on the banks of the East River, and the fact that it's hate-fuel for those who have to look at it from Brooklyn, but now the company is taking it to the streets, and likely annoying even more of the city. Their never-ending "network is always with you" campaign was filming earlier over near 7th Street and 1st Avenue. Did you see hundreds of red shirts clogging up the East Village today? Can you see them now? more ›