Verizon rolling out visual voicemail in coming months
by Chris Ziegler 
posted Jun 17th 2008 at 1:29PM
Jump on the bandwagon much, Verizon? We're just bustin' your chops, guys -- we know it's hard to avoid jumping on the bandwagon when Sprint and AT&T (by way of Apple, of course) are starting to hustle hard with the visual voicemail trend. We've caught wind that VVM is actually shockingly close to launching on a handful of Verizon devices; the current target is late July to early August. That's the good news. The bad news, though, is that it'll run $1.99 on top of your regular plan pricing, which feels like a bit of a rip when the crosstown competitors are doing it at no additional charge. The feature will take the form of a BREW download that can be snagged and provisioned by the customer in the field without any customer service intervention, and will launch on specific devices.The first four to get hooked up will be the LG Chocolate 3, the "Voyager Refresh" (it's unclear whether this is a hardware or firmware update to the present-day Voyager), and from Motorola, the "Blaze" and "Utopia." We're not sure what those two are, either, but the rugged V750 may be the Utopia, and deductive reasoning suggests that the VU30 could be the Blaze.
[Thanks, HTCKid]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
N.Rosario @ Jun 17th 2008 1:45PM
the 750 is the adventure, the voyager is going to be a pleasant suprise
reuvypoo @ Jun 17th 2008 1:50PM
How exciting! It is absolutely ridiculous they want to charge for it. I really wanted visual voicemail on the Dare on a future firmware update, but I will not pay an extra $1.99 a month for a convenient feature. I am very disappointed in Verizon for this.
Sean M. @ Jun 17th 2008 2:28PM
Want more...pay more. Seems like a sound business model, no? seriously, I would venture that eventually it will be swallowed into a 'bundle' package such that it would not be as obvious that it's being payed for. Just like they did with mobile web and vcast and everything else that is in the premium plans or whatever they are called.
It's really no different than AT&T charging $10 more for the 3G data on the new iPhone. Anytime an offering is refreshed with something new, they will try to extract any dollar they can.
cwcanty @ Jun 17th 2008 2:27PM
Im not super happy with them charging for it. But if you give it away, you get no revenue. Might as well charge a couple of bucks and the people that want it or need it will pay for it. If 1 Million people subscribe (which isnt really that many), thats $2 Million a month. If you were a business would you want to give up $2 Million a month just because some other company is giving it away for free? You can't just give products and services away because consumers want you to.
And I would be willing to bet that within 3 months att will start charging for it. They always let verizon take the pricing lead.
Just my two cents
Bill @ Jun 17th 2008 2:49PM
Hmmm... Apple and AT&T change their exclusivity agreement to some undisclosed new agreement, now Verizon is rolling out visual voicemail. What's next?
elgee02 @ Jun 17th 2008 9:18PM
Piss and moan all you want but even at $1.99 I predict this is going to be pretty popular, especially on touch screen phones like the Dare, Glyde, and Voyager. I also predict that Visual Voicemail will also be included in the premium plans in the future as well.
Numz @ Jun 17th 2008 3:15PM
I'm tired of Verizon nickel and diming their customers. I think visual voice mail is a cool feature but I'm not going to pay for it. This last 3 months with Verizon has been bad and this tops it off. I think I'm going to jump ship and go with Att.
tra la la @ Jun 17th 2008 3:39PM
and I'm sick and tired of people always saying that Verizon nickel n' dimes everything with everybody. (general comment, not necessarily diected at you Numz)
believe it or not, Verizon Wireless is in the business to make money. Someday, services will be provided and all that will be asked is a smile and a "thank you". Today isn't that day, and tomorrow isn't looking good either.
bottomline: a service is provided, a fee is assessed. just like Sean M said - it's a sound business model. if you don't want to pay for it, then don't get it. if you really want it, then either absorb the cost into your monthly statement, or go to the website and use the "contact us" page to write in feedback and offer suggestions.
elgee02 @ Jun 18th 2008 2:15AM
Seriously Numz, that is weak.
How is coming out with an OPTIONAL feature nickel and diming? VZW didn't even give the option before, and now you will have the choice to pay $1.99 for it. Think that is too much? THEN DON'T GET IT. Free market capitalism... so simple.
But please Numz, please elaborate how VZW nickel and dimes you ANY MORE than ATT? Please... go on....
tra la la @ Jun 17th 2008 3:43PM
new comment, but also kind of a continuation of my last one...
I think it's a neat feature, but not something I really want or need. other than being kind of a gimmick, there's really no need for VVM. Since there is a charge, I'm not going to use a service that I probably (99% likely) wasn't going to use anyway.
kool @ Jun 17th 2008 3:56PM
I agree with cwcanty. If Verizon doesn't make any money by adding it to the feature list, then why offer it?
There are plenty of companies out there that offer free forms of visual voicemail. Have you tried youmail?
I have youmail and will more than happily pay VZW $1.99 per month for this service that I want and need.
I hate when people complain about "nickel and diming" customers, when in fact the customers are just being penny pinchers and want to get everything for free. It is a service based industry, you can't expect to receive every additional service for free.
Numz @ Jun 17th 2008 3:47PM
tra la la...LOL.. i have to laugh because I leave comments with Verizon all the time. I've never seen one of my comments implemented. Besides, Verizon customers start to feel like they are being nickel n dimed when other major carriers offer similar services for nothing. LOL.. I don't even want to get into all the things they have tried to charge me for, which after several phone calls I've been able to convince them to reverse the charges. Don't get me wrong, I know Verizon is in a busines to make money but they are making money, sometime its just good go give back to loyal customers by offering perks. When a company offers perks it makes you feel important and you are more likely to be loyal and stay with them, I don't think anyone can argue with that.
JJ @ Jun 17th 2008 4:06PM
Hopefully this means that the Voyager is getting a heapin' firmware update.
Which it desperately needs.
Myke @ Jun 17th 2008 4:29PM
For what it's worth, I've seen mention of a sku for the "Voyager standard battery - silver" floating around.
Ricardo Torres @ Jun 17th 2008 7:04PM
Any word on what else might the FIRMWARE might be updating?
Terrel @ Jun 20th 2008 9:45PM
the vu30 will be the utopia and the blaze i have no idea but it may be the v750
trix @ Jun 17th 2008 7:24PM
Verizon Visual voicemail is launching for many phones. There also a package in line for windows mobil phones.
Paul @ Jun 17th 2008 9:03PM
Voyager 2 is coming Christmas 2008.
Courtney @ Jun 17th 2008 9:16PM
How can some of you talk about Verizon nickel and diming customers? Last I heard, all cellphone companies want your money Both the iPhones and the Samsung Instinct requires AT LEAST $30 per month for data.
Courtney @ Jun 17th 2008 9:16PM
Its also pretty damn cool to have visual voicemail, on more than ONE handset the carrier offers.
J @ Jun 17th 2008 9:44PM
The Blaze is a variant of the Ming. All touch screen phone with protective plastic cover that allows the phone to operate like a flip phone for making and taking calls (earpiece is part of plastic cover). Other specs include Mobile TV, VCast, FOTA, VZ Nav, 8GB (possibly more by time of release) micro SD capability, and talks of 3MP cam, blah, blah, standard VZW features, blah, blah. About the size of the Decoy. Very cool but will be standard fare when compared to Voyager, Instinct, Glimmer, Dare, etc
Steve @ Jun 17th 2008 10:52PM
It sounds like a cool feature, and yeah, I agree that VZW does try to get every penny you have, but I don't know how much I would use this feature for the price of $1.99/month.... I say this because I tend to answer/be able to answer almost all of my phonecalls.
PSM @ Jun 18th 2008 1:50AM
This is ridiculous. Visual voicemail is something carriers should have been working to introduce 10 years ago. They should be ashamed it's taken this long to move beyond the archaic way we get voicemail, forget about charging extra for it.
Scott @ Jun 18th 2008 4:49PM
IMO $1.99 for a "luxury" feature is not out of line, if you dont want to pay... dont order the service, it's an option not a necessity. It ist free for the company to buy, implement and support the feature, they need to recover the costs from somewhere, the consumer will always carry this burden should be used to it by now.
Marc Wenning @ Jun 19th 2008 5:16PM
When is T-Mobile going to step up, this would be a cool feature for the upcoming android phones.