Verizon

Information Week notes that US operator Verizon Wireless will this month offer the first clamshell BlackBerry from Research In Motion.

CNet News reports that Alltel Wireless has announced that, starting 5 June, it will bring back one-year service contracts for all of Alltel's new and renewing customers.

Atlantic Tele-Network (ATN), a small US operator based in Massachusetts, is to acquire mobile network assets worth around US$200 million from Verizon Wireless' recently-acquired Alltel business.

Qualcomm is to launch its FLO mobile TV service in 39 new US markets this year following the switchover to digital TV (DTV) in the country, which takes place tomorrow.

Four US senators have called for the FCC, the US communications regulator, to review the deals made by mobile operators to offer certain devices on an exclusive basis, arguing that the arrangements may distort market competition.

Verizon Communications and AT&T have denied that they colluded in setting prices for text messages, insisting that prices had fallen for most customers and that the US market is competitive.

Reuters quoted Paul Roth, president of retail sales and services at AT&T, saying, "Competition in the wireless marketplace is white hot," in a testimony before a Senate Commerce Committee hearing to examine the US mobile market.