Verizon to sell mobile ads; service still not free
by Chris Ziegler 
posted Dec 27th 2006 at 7:31AM
Where we come from, we were raised to believe that WAP-based content is intended to be simple, straight to the point, and free from distraction. After all, depending on the handset, you could be dealing with a bare minimum of screen real estate -- not to mention slow connections (in some areas, anyway) and impatient users. Be that as it may, Verizon Wireless is looking to imbue its walled garden of news, weather, and sports content with banner ads (can they really be called "banner" ads on screens that small?) starting early next year. To be fair, Verizon's fully aware of the revenue boon they could be looking at here, but its VP of marketing and digital media says "we likely will not - we want to take it carefully and methodically, and enable the right experience." Famous last words, Verizon; famous last words indeed. We'll be counting on you to set the right tone for industry moderation on this one.[Thanks, srizah]
Filed under: Verizon Wireless, Misc
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
PEZ @ Dec 27th 2006 7:50PM
I would be willing ot bet, Verizon (and others) will offer to charge you for a service that is FREE of ads. While, making money from advertizers when you do not. Since, they (the ads) will be right in your face. And, in essense, costing you money, in the long run, for more content DLed from your cell. Providing you arent on an unlimited plan for data.
Its miniscule, but if pictures acompany that text ad, things could ad up for verizon customers.
And this, folks, is why they suck.
PAY FOR NO ADS! Its genius. Its like paying to be anonymous in the phone book.
.ed @ Dec 27th 2006 10:49AM
operamini.com for the win.
why would ANYONE use a WAP browser when Opera mini compresses the data, removes ad banners, has content folding (!!!) and is far faster too, making an 80k WAP browsed site only 3k on Opera mini.... your cell phone bill will thank you.
posted using Opera mini,
.ed
srw985 @ Dec 27th 2006 10:59AM
here in the UK on vodafone, vodafone live wap site is always free to access, has news sport weather etc, and no ads
Gennaro @ Dec 27th 2006 2:03PM
If this catches on with other services, I'm going to be dropping my high tech phone for one with a monochrome low res screen, so that these cant be shown. Will be just phone and text for me, i get enough crap to look at on the pc.
saq @ Dec 27th 2006 2:10PM
Up next, Verizon rapes, then spits, on its customers.
a_n @ Dec 27th 2006 8:21PM
saq: nice eFront reference. We're not too far away from that happening.
PEZ: Verizon is basically charging you to view ads, since you're using up minutes and paying whatever per-kilobyte rate they charge (is it $.002 or .002 cents per kilobyte? Hmmm...). Verizon receives data fees, charges for minutes if there's an overage, AND earns ad revenue. Brilliant!
I've decided to stop waiting for the end of term and have T-mobile send Verizon an FCC number porting request. They've pushed on us the VCast spamvertising, the Borg UI, the lack of Bluetooth, the Get It Now! media lock-in, and their sad lineup of yesteryear phones. Let's see how many subscribers VZW loses to this boneheaded money-grab.
"Advertising is the rattling of a stick inside a swill bucket." -- George Orwell
HTC Kid @ Dec 28th 2006 4:55PM
OK OK I'll post more info on this later.
elgee02 @ Dec 28th 2006 6:24PM
Phonescoop says Sprint has already been doing this. Looks like the "spitting and raping" is not exclusive to Verizon Wireless.
Kurt @ Dec 28th 2006 7:34PM
According to Verizon, initially, the ads will only be on the mobile web 2.0 service, not on vcast, or vcast music. During the rollout, the ads will only be on 3rd party pages like the ESPN or Maxim online pages. Customers will not be able to opt out, but "As with advertising in other media - TV commercials, newspaper ads, billboards, radio spots - customers can choose to skip right over them."
Also, as this is a trial, customer reactions and feedback will be closely monitored.