Wireless Internet Reviews

One of the bigger stories in the gadget-centric Internet yesterday was the emergence of the BlackBerry Storm 2. Long-rumored, the device was finally caught on camera in the wild, to the delight of many BlackBerry geeks national and international. The good news about the device, and what’s relevant in this space: It includes Wi-Fi this time around. This is a big change for Verizon, which has held back on Wi-Fi handsets for basically the history of their existence. Users will get it this time around, which can’t make anyone unhappy.

The original Storm was significant for mobile broadband purposes because unlike many smartphones, the Storm operated on EVDO Rev. A. This is usually reserved for mobile broadband aircard users — the ones who pay $60 per month for 5GB of data. The Storm 2 will presumably feature Rev. A as well, but with the added benefit of Wi-Fi.

Verizon could play the Wi-Fi aspect to their advantage. AT&T boasts that iPhone users an access any of their 17,000 nationwide Wi-Fi hotspots for free. Verizon doesn’t have any right now, but they’re talking about offering free Wi-Fi to home broadband customers. It would make a whole lot of sense to see them extend this offer to Storm users. We’ll have a better idea of Verizon’s Wi-Fi plans over the summer, which will come in plenty of time to address the Storm, which should hit retail outlets a bit later.