As if we needed any more verification that Verizon doesn't understand what their customers want, the Times (yes, twice in one day!) has a nice bit about the Junxion Box, a Wi-Fi router with a built-in slot for EV-DO cards. The Junxion Boxes take the service available through Verizon's Broadband Access service and reroute it over Wi-Fi, allowing multiple users to share the bandwidth provided by the $80/month EV-DO plan.
"The premise is one person buys an air card and one person uses the service, not an entire neighborhood," said Jeffrey Nelson, executive director for corporate communications at Verizon Wireless. "Giving things away for free doesn't work anymore. It never did."
I'm pretty sure that $80 a month isn't free. I'm also pretty sure that customers pay Verizon for a service—wireless internet—and don't really give a pig's hairnet about what Verizon wants them to do with it. When even Willie Nelson's crew understands your technology better than you do, perhaps you should realize something is wrong in your thinking.
"That's just something they have got to live with because that's the technology now," said David Anderson, Willie Nelson's tour manager of 31 years. "Most people wouldn't or couldn't afford to have that many cards. They weren't going to get 22 customers, but now they got 6."
For Surfers, a Roving Hot Spot That Shares [NYTimes]