Today Tony Lewis, our new VP for the Open Development initiative, announced March 19-20 as the dates for our Open Development conference.  This conference is for the development community looking to get their innovations onto our network (see the release below for further details.)

Because in the virtual world space is virtually unlimited, we’ll be soliciting questions from those unable to attend the conference in New York City here at Policyblog.  We’ll answer as many as we can and publish them together in a future blog post (not in comments).  That way, everyone can see how we think this initiative will encourage innovation, give customers wireless choices, and quickly address opportunities to expand the wireless market. 

We’ll have a post that specifically asks for your questions and spells out when and how we’ll answer them. But if you feel the urge, by all means please submit your questions in comments below and we’ll add them to the mix.

VERIZON WIRELESS TO HOST OPEN DEVELOPMENT CONFERENCE MARCH 19-20, 2008 IN NEW YORK CITY

            BASKING RIDGE, N.J., and WASHINGTON, D.C. – Verizon Wireless today announced that the company’s much-anticipated Open Development Conference will be held in New York City on March 19-20, 2008.  The announcement was made by Anthony A. Lewis, Verizon Wireless’ newly-appointed vice president of the Open Development initiative, during a panel discussion today hosted by New America Foundation.  Information about Verizon Wireless’ Open Development initiative is online at www.verizonwireless.com/opendevelopment.    

 News of the conference, which will focus largely on development for new devices to run on the award-winning Verizon Wireless network, comes just eight weeks after Verizon Wireless announced that later this year it will provide customers the option to use, on its nationwide wireless network, wireless devices, software and applications not offered by the company.  Verizon Wireless’ Open Development initiative is driven by the company’s desire to encourage innovation, give customers wireless choices, and quickly address opportunities to expand the wireless market.  Higher data speeds and throughput performance that will come with the rollout of its fourth generation broadband network will open the door to a surge in new consumer electronics enabled by wireless connectivity.     

Verizon Wireless is structuring the conference for the development community.  The company encourages developers from the device community to attend the two-day event, where they can learn about the technical standards needed for devices to run on the Verizon Wireless network.

            “This initial conference is for developers of devices – because before consumers can have open access, you have to have open development,” said Lewis.  “In hosting this conference, our aim is to jump start the development community by sharing information needed to develop devices for our network that achieve our network performance goals while making it easy for them to deliver devices.”

Lewis also indicated that while the company is listening to a segment of customers who want another choice without full service, Verizon Wireless will continue to make available a full-service offering – from retail stores where customers can shop, to 24/7 customer service and technical support, to an easy-to-use handset interface and optimized software applications.  

For more information about Verizon Wireless’ Open Development Conference, visit www.verizonwireless.com/opendevelopment.  

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About Verizon Wireless

Verizon Wireless operates the nation’s most reliable wireless voice and data network, serving 63.7 million customers. The largest U.S. wireless company and largest wireless data provider, based on revenues, Verizon Wireless is headquartered in Basking Ridge, N.J., with 68,000 employees nationwide. The company is a joint venture of Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ) and Vodafone (NYSE and LSE: VOD).  Find more information on the Web at www.verizonwireless.com. To preview and request broadcast-quality video footage and high-resolution stills of Verizon Wireless operations, log on to the Verizon Wireless Multimedia Library at www.verizonwireless.com/multimedia.