Almost all major cell phone manufacturers now offer Bluetooth enabled cell phones, and just about every service provider offers Bluetooth phones for use on their network. However, not every service provider supports the same Bluetooth applications. For example, let’s take a look at the following situation I encountered:

I own a Bluetooth enabled cell phone, and many of my friends and family members also own Bluetooth phones. My sister and I both have Cingular Wireless. She has the Sony Ericsson Z520a and I have the Motorola RAZR. One of my friends also has the Motorola RAZR; however his is for Verizon Wireless.

Using the Bluetooth features on our Cingular Bluetooth phones, my sister and I were able to easily transfer multimedia files (pics, videos, ringtones, etc.) to one another. When it came to my friends RAZR for Verizon Wireless, none of these Bluetooth features were available. When he attempted to send me a file via Bluetooth, we were unable to establish a connection. We couldn’t figure out why his Verizon Wireless Bluetooth phone couldn’t perform the same file sharing functions. One would think that the same Bluetooth phones would offer the same Bluetooth applications. Well, this isn’t the case and it is all thanks to the money hungry people at Verizon Wireless.

Verizon Wireless intentionally cripples or disables many of the wonderful features Bluetooth enabled cell phones are intended to provide. Verizon Wireless most likely does this in order to force their customers to use their network services for sending and receiving multimedia files. This is how they make more money off their users, by making them pay to download ring tones, songs, pictures, etc.

This practice (disabling Bluetooth applications in cell phones) has caused many Verizon Wireless customers to become very upset. Some customers were so upset that they actually decided to take action with the wireless giant. Over a year ago, a group of Verizon Wireless customers from California filed a class action lawsuit against the service provider. The lawsuit contended that Verizon Wireless failed to properly inform its customers that certain Bluetooth features were not supported by their Motorola v710 cell phone. Verizon Wireless was accused of disabling some of the Bluetooth features that Motorola advertised for the v710 phone.

The lawsuit documents, "Verizon Wireless has enjoyed enormous financial gains by marketing and selling the popular Bluetooth v710 phone then disabling almost all of its Bluetooth capabilities, resulting in a degraded phone, which requires the customer to use other Verizon 'paid' services in place of the Bluetooth capabilities that were supposed to be part of the phone's Bluetooth features."

Similar to my friends Motorola RAZR, the Verizon Wireless v710 cell phone offers Bluetooth hands free communication with Bluetooth headsets and Bluetooth car kits, but fails to support any additional Bluetooth applications. Verizon Wireless decided not to support any of the other Bluetooth functions that Motorola originally stated the RAZR and v710 would support. Bluetooth functions like file-sharing and image-transfer, which enable users to transfer ringtones, pictures, etc. to phones, computers, or other devices. Verizon Wireless prohibits its RAZR and v710 customers from using these Bluetooth functions as a free means to share information and multimedia.

The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG), which manages, regulates, and promotes Bluetooth technology, understands the pain of the Verizon Wireless v710 users and continues to offer support on their behalf.

"The Bluetooth SIG is very disappointed in this implementation decision and believes many consumers who purchased this phone for the Bluetooth capabilities are frustrated and confused as a result," said Michael Foley, executive director of the SIG. "Users have realistic expectations that Bluetooth enabled mobile phones will work with their other Bluetooth enabled devices including cars, headsets, PCs, printers, PDAs, etc.," Foley states.

“While we on the technical side understand that certain profiles must be implemented to enable various usage scenarios, we shouldn't expect consumers, for example, to realize their phone does not have the OBEX or file-sharing profile. They just know they want to send a picture from their camera phone to their PC and can't. And they don't know why."

In September of 2005, Verizon Wireless ended up settling on the lawsuit. I am not sure of the specifics of the settlement, but I am sure the plaintiffs received little retribution (as is usually the case in class action lawsuits). Today, Verizon Wireless continues to disable many Bluetooth features with their cell phones. So, no matter what the outcome of the lawsuit, it appears the principle fight was lost.

Posted May 26, 2006 by BlueTomorrow.com Editorial Staff