Verizon Late Fees for Customers, Small Businesses Waived Until June 30

Verizon announced today that it won’t terminate service or charge late fees for customers through June 30.

Verizon today signed onto the FCC’s new “Keep Americans Connected” pledge. Verizon’s new customer commitment will help ensure connectivity and offer assistance to customers and small businesses facing challenges from the global crisis.

Good to know if you’re a Verizon customer.

Yahoo Mobile Phone Service Arrives for $40

Yahoo Mobile is a new phone service that costs US$40/month. It uses Verizon’s network to give you unlimited texts, calls, and 4G data.

Times of high congestion will result in a slower connection, and tethering is limited to 5Mbits, with one tethered device permitted at time. Regular download speeds will range between 5-12 Mbps, with upload speeds of around 2-5 Mbps — not ground-breaking stuff, but reasonable enough.

It’s a direct competitor to Verizon’s other prepaid service, Visible (Which I use). Visible sounds like a better deal than Yahoo Mobile though since it removed its data cap.

Automattic Buys Tumblr for Pennies on the Dollar

Automattic, the company behind WordPress, just bought Tumblr from Verizon for less than US$3 million. Verizon had acquired the site from Yahoo for US$1.1 billion.

As part of the deal, Automattic will gain 200 staffers from Tumblr. Verizon is said to have discussed a sale of Tumblr with a handful of different companies but ultimately landed on Automattic. “The sale price isn’t material to Verizon,” today’s report says citing “people familiar with the matter.”

Before you get excited, know that the porn ban will remain in place.

Which Carrier Really Has 'America's Best Network"?

Every carrier at one point seems to be crowned “America’s Best Network” but which one is actually the best? It turns out that the companies that perform these tests use different methodologies and so reach different conclusions.

In recent weeks, three key studies have reached conflicting conclusions about the top four nationwide carriers, which includes Sprint. But reports by RootMetrics, OpenSignal, and PCMag that, respectively, gave top honors to Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T aren’t wrong—not if you understand how they were put together.

First T-Mobile 5G Test Reaches 493 Mbps in New York

During the first T-Mobile 5G test in New York City, the service scored 493 Mbps using a Verizon phone.

T-Mobile’s feat becomes greater when you understand that the carrier is using much less spectrum than Verizon is. Allnet Insights says T-Mobile is using 80MHz of spectrum in New York, which would make its theoretical maximum speed 500Mbps, but I’ve also heard that T-Mobile is using 100MHz, which would make the theoretical maximum 625Mbps.

Maybe PornHub Could Resurrect Dying Tumblr

After banning porn, Tumblr’s users have fled the platform. Now Verizon Media Group is looking to sell it off.

It’s tough to say which media company might be in the market for Tumblr at this point. The once white-hot platform doesn’t hold the same sort of cache it did when it was purchased half a decade ago. Notably, Tumblr also lost its CTO to SeatGeek earlier this week.

I love serendipitous moments in life. For example, last night I read that Verizon wants to sell Tumblr. I immediately thought to myself, “PornHub should definitely buy it.” An hour later, BuzzFeed News wrote that, indeed, PornHub is interested.

Why I Love T-Mobile

Dr. Mac didn’t much care for AT&T Wireless, but he loves T-Mobile, his current wireless provider. Find out why in this week’s thrilling episode (#328 for those keeping track) of Dr. Mac’s Rants & Raves.

Visible is a New Prepaid Carrier Selling iPhones

Visible is a new Verizon-owned prepaid carrier, and it recently announced it will start selling iPhones at 0% APR.

As for what Visible is actually offering, you pay $40 a month for unlimited text, voice, data and hotspot usage at speeds of up to 5 Mbps. There’s no contract, no extra fees and you manage everything through an app on your phone.

I’m tempted to sign up for Visible. Last year they reached out to me to test the service but I never heard back. Time to test it on my own.

Verizon Unlimited Customers Get Free Apple Music

Customers of Verizon Unlimited plans will get free, full Apple Music as a perk. This is for the Beyond Unlimited and Above Unlimited plans.

The bonus Apple Music should be launched in the next couple of days, according to the information that we received. Verizon is yet to make the announcement publicly, but the information comes from a source that has proved reliable in the past.

Verizon's $2, Apple's Newest Football, Netflix's Rebellion - ACM 476

Verizon recently throttled a fire department’s command and control vehicle in a pursuit of $2, and Bryan Chaffin and Jeff Gamet have some thoughts about the propriety of such an action. They also wonder whether rumors of a new iMac mean we can start trusting Apple to update its Macs again, or if Lucy will just yank the ball away instead. They cap the show with a look at Netflix’s baby steps towards rebellion against Apple’s App Store cut for subscriptions.