Eww?  This thing is an affront to Internet technology.  It acts, in fact, a lot like a cable TV box.  No surprise, really - that's exactly what Verizon wants.

This is just astounding, I truly shudder to think what would be happening if we weren't here to cover this.

Thanks for posting about this Matt, i'll spread the word about this latest indignity.

-C.

You know what else these creeps will limit or quash -- webcam use.  

Families who use this to talk to one another via any of the messenger or iChat variants won't be happy when the pipe owners make them pony up at extortionist rates.  

Nothing to see here. Surely Verizon has your best interests in mind. Move along now. Over there, something shiny.

Having been a longtime customer of Verizon Wireless (though it is operated as somewhat of an independent company) I may provide some insight into their business model.

I've been with Verizon Wireless for close to 3 years now and have generally been very impressed with both the service and customer service (but I do hear that this differs from landline customer experiences).  That being said, they are absolutely the most aggressive wireless company when it comes to controlling and promoting services that generate additional revenue such as pix messaging, internet over phone, video over phone, phone uploads, etc. Every one of their phones comes totally locked down (though, armed with the right information, one can unlock most of the features, heh heh). They were basically the last company to have Bluetooth phones (citing, um, security concerns) and when they finally did, they weren't fully Bluetooth enabled (as I recall, to the extent that there were lawsuits about false advertising).  In fact, when people complained about the lack of full Bluetooth in the E815, Verizon tried to pin it on Motorola but, in fact, it appears Verizon changed the specs at the last minute to eliminate certain file transfer capability.  Thus for example, while I can use my phone as a handsfree device in my Prius, I can't directly download my phone's address book into the car's address book.  

Now I understand that this is a capitalistic society and Verizon has a right to deriving various income streams from services and even to prevent "illegal" downloads.  That's not really my beef with them.  The issue is more about their honesty about it.  If you really badger them, as some users have done, and work your way up the chain of command, you may get someone that cops to this commercial approach.  But they do their utmost to keep this stuff quiet, I suppose because customers might be less interested in buying partially disabled equipment or equipment that locks them into Verizon provided services.  But that's really for the customer to decide and one can't if the company isn't honest about the technology.

The bottom line is to not expect Verizon to be honest about the capabilities or intended use of these routers.  And I wouldn't be surprised if they require the use of this router rather than allow people to buy any compatible router (though whether they can technologically enforce this is another matter).  

Non-transparent technology is one thing that undercuts benefits to the consumer of a free marketplace.  As does lobbying to the goverment but that's another rant.

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Technoly Transfer Company offer great articles on this issues and you can read more for a comprehensive perspective over the new router.