Let the hive mind of Engadget get that for you.
"I'm in the market for a new phone and money isn't a limitation. I'm also not partial to any particular US carrier, but here are some of the features I'd like to have: WiFi, GPS, good coverage in lots of places, push Gmail (a must!), physical keyboard (a must!), a touchscreen, decent battery life and a relatively slim body. And please, nothing that has a fruit logo on it. No offense to the fruit fans, though. Thanks!"
This is interesting because Verizon is the last company I would think would do this because of their roll in fighting the 700Mhz Spectrum Auction rules on Open Access. Verizon doesn't have alot of spectrum (which is why we see data caps on EVDO) compared to Sprint. They must have something up their sleeve like plan on taking all the 700mhz in the up coming auction or something. I know they want the emergency responder band in the auction since they purposed it to the FCC after Siren's Call. In the end... don't expect Open Access Slingboxes with Verizon.
Good point, in fact this announcement coincides perfectly with their inevitable bid for the 700Mhz spectrum. Originally they fought, and the CTIA is still fighting, the "any device, any app" provision, but it was injected into the terms anyways. Then they hoped the auction would not meet the FCC minimum of $15bn and tried to call Google's bluff, but realized Google was not bluffing. So now the facts are that the "any device, any app" provision is in the terms and will stay there given that the auction will definitely go over $15bn with Google in the game. Given that, Verizon has no choice to play along if they even want a chance at snagging the spectrum.
Of course, as was mention in this and a previous engadget article, the devil is in the details. Given that the "any device, any app" provision applies only if said device/app does not interfere with the network, ie. meets the carrier's standards, the winning bidding still holds a lot of power as they can still block any device or app simply under the guise of its use causing network problems.