Tag: Verizon

Verizon has become the first US carrier to update the Moto Z2 Force to Android Oreo.  The carrier has released build ODX27.109-34 for the Z2 Force, bringing Oreo and all of its goodness to the July 2017 flagship device from Moto.

As you would expect, the update is sizable at around 900MB, making it one that you will want to download while you are WiFi and have at least 80% battery life.  Installation should take 10-15 minutes and a reboot is required.

Verizon customers who are using the Samsung Galaxy S6 or S6 Edge on the network have a new update rolling out to their phones.  The updates bring the October Android Security Update to the phones.  The Galaxy S6 will be getting updated firmware build NRD90M.G920VVRS4DQJ1 while the S6 Edge will be seeing build NRD90M.G925VVRS4DQJ1.

The updates are minor in that the only contain the Android Security Update patches for October.  There are no new features nor any other performance improvements mentioned in the respective release notes.  This isn’t surprising frankly as the S6 lineup is now well & truly in maintenance only mode.  Still, it is good to see Verizon keeping these popular mid-2015 phones going and secure.

Verizon has released their 3rd quarter 2017 financial results and they are a mixed bag.  Revenue for the company rose by a mere 2.5% to $31.7 billion in the quarter when compared to the same quarter in 2016.  The company’s consolidated operating income margin for the quarter was 22.7% with a net income of $3.7 billion.  The financial report also reflects the completed acquisition of Yahoo, now under the name of Oath.  That was a $4.48 Billion charge on the company financials but the newly formed division of Yahoo and AOL generated revenue of $2 Billion.

Must of the generated revenue for Verizon came from new postpaid mobile subscribers.  In Q3 they added 603,000 with a churn of .97%.  That means there was a net add of 486,000 subscribers.  The churn figure is critical to any carrier as it reflects how many customers are staying with the company.  The lower the better.

Ookla, the company behind Speedtest, has released a report on the health of mobile networks here in the United States.  In that report, T-Mobile was deemed to have the best performing mobile network in the country, outscoring Verizon, AT&T and Sprint.

Speedtest, for those who don’t know, is a service that allows you to test the download and upload speed of your data connection (or Wi-Fi) from a website or their mobile app.

The report bases the information on a new Speed Score model that the company uses to measure the performance of mobile networks.

This year Ookla also introduced Speed Score to more accurately reflect the full breadth of networking experience on a given network. Speed Score incorporates low-end, median and top-end performance for both download and upload speed. It’s a comprehensive metric that combines all factors that matter to a good network experience into a single score.

Using this methodology, the test results should more accurately reflect what users can expect from a particular mobile network.

Yahoo stockholders, in a special meeting held yesterday, have approved the sale of the company to Verizon.  The news came from Yahoo’s Investor Relations site and was a short but important announcement.

Yahoo stockholders approved the previously announced proposed sale to Verizon Communications Inc. (“Verizon”) of the Company’s operating business (the “Sale Transaction”). In addition, Yahoo stockholders voted to approve the advisory vote on the compensation payable to the Company’s named executive officers in connection with the completion of the Sale Transaction.

The announcement goes on to say that the expected close date of the sale is June 13, 2017.  The company will then be named Altaba, inc..  The total cost of the transaction is $4.48 billion and will position Verizon as a significant player in the digital marketing sector, their primary purpose for making the acquisition.

The Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus may have only been released last week but they are already receiving updates from carriers here in the United States that carry them.  AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon all have released updates to the new flagship devices which should be hitting those who own the phone via an OTA update over the course of the next few days.  The update is about 300MB in size across all of the carriers.

All of the updates contain the April 2017 Android Security update as well as baseband updates for each of the carriers.  These two reasons alone make this a must have download as it assures the security of the device as well assuring it will work optimally with your carrier of choice.  This update also addresses general performance improvements around the display and fixes some known bugs with the software.