Unlimited surfing, hosted e-mail on tap By Colin Gibbs Story posted: April 14, 2008 - 2:19 pm EDT
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.
VZW gooses data offerings 
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