Verizon has once again taken the top spot in Consumer Reports? annual ranking of the nation?s four largest cellphone carriers, holding onto the title for the second consecutive year, while putting some serious distance between its largest competitor, AT&T.

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For many organizations, the biggest threat to their networks and data doesn't come from nation-state attackers, hacktivists, or cyber-criminals. Insiders, such as disgruntled ex-employees and frustrated employees, pose significant dangers to the organization's security

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Boosted by the launch of Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone 5, Verizon (VZ) on Thursday reported a solid quarter with net subscriber addition figures that crushed Wall Street’s lofty expectations. Analysts saw Verizon adding 901,000 net postpaid subscribers last quarter but heavy iPhone demand pushed the key metric to 1.5 million, with total net subscriber adds reaching 1.8 million in the quarter. The carrier earned $0.56 per share, up more than 14% from $0.49 in the year-ago quarter, and revenue grew 4% to $29 billion. Operating income margin grew to a record-high 31.8%, and Verizon now claims 95.9 million total retail connections including 90.4 million total retail postpaid connections. The company said on its earnings call that it activated3.4 million Android phones and 3.1

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Verizon Wireless on Monday confirmed that the DROID RAZR, RAZR MAXX, HTC Rezound, and DROID 4 will receive global roaming capabilities later this summer, enabling the handsets to access voice and data services in more than 200 countries, Droid-Life reported. “Customers will see a notification on their device when the software update is available for their device,” a Verizon spokesperson said. “After the software update, customers will be able to take their smartphone overseas and use voice service in more than 220 countries and receive data in more than 205 countries.” While the carrier didn’t give a specific timeline, there is a possibility the update may be included with the smartphone’s upcoming Ice Cream Sandwich updates, which are also slated for

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U.S. cellular carrier Verizon is planning to move its customers who still have unlimited data plans for their smartphones to its new family data-share plans as customers switch to LTE data plans.

The iPhone was initially offered with unlimited data plans when it launched on Verizon early last year, but the carrier soon dropped the unlimited option in favor of data plans with allocations of data.


Fierce Wireless has the details, quoting Verizon Communications CFO Fran Shammo at a JP Morgan conference:

As these 3G unlimited data plan customers migrate to 4G LTE, they will have to purchase the company's data-share plan (which Verizon plans to launch in mid-summer) and move off the $30 per month unlimited data plan. "Everyone will be on data share," Shammo said.

Verizon currently throttles its unlimited data users only when a particular cell tower is overloaded, whereas competitor AT&T slows its unlimited users after they use 3GB of data in a month. AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson recently noted that his one regret about bringing the iPhone to AT&T was offering unlimited data.

Sprint, the number three carrier in the country -- and the only carrier to still offer unlimited data packages for the iPhone -- has said it will continue to offer unlimited data plans for the iPhone, even if the next iPhone includes LTE, as is expected.

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Verizon yesterday made headlines for comments from Chief Financial Officer Fran Shammo revealing that the carrier is planning to discontinue its grandfathered unlimited data plans when the carrier rolls out new shared data plans this summer. Verizon dropped those unlimited data plans within months of introducing the iPhone early last year, but customers who had previously been on the unlimited plans have been allowed to keep them, even through handset upgrades.

Tim Cook and Verizon Wireless CEO Dan Mead introduce the Verizon iPhone in January 2011
Verizon issued a clarification to The New York Times today, noting that the loss of grandfathered unlimited plans will be limited to those customers purchasing new subsidized devices for use on the carrier. Users who do not upgrade their devices or who choose to upgrade at unsubsidized prices will be able to keep their unlimited data plans. Still, the change would appear to be set to affect the majority of Verizon's current unlimited data customers, as most customers are interested in regular handset upgrades at subsidized prices.

- Customers will not be automatically moved to new shared data plans. If a 3G or 4G smartphone customer is on an unlimited plan now and they do not want to change their plan, they will not have to do so.

- When we introduce our new shared data plans, Unlimited Data will no longer be available to customers when purchasing handsets at discounted pricing.

- Customers who purchase phones at full retail price and are on an unlimited smartphone data plan will be able to keep that plan.

- The same pricing and policies will be applied to all 3G and 4GLTE smartphones.

Sprint remains the only major U.S. carrier to offer unlimited data for iPhone users, and the carrier has indicated that it will continue to do so for the next-generation device, even if it supports 4G LTE networks that could lead to consumers using more data capacity.

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