Verizon Wins With Upgraded World Service

Verizon Communications(VZ Quote) and I have never seen eye to networking eye.

I'm a personal and business customer. I get the company's terrific fiber-to-the-home FiOS Internet service. And I have used its cellular service for more than a decade. But all that time together has revealed major shortcomings.

The cellular arm of the company adopts a gold-plated, Goldman Sachs(GS Quote) attitude toward telecommunications. The standard GSM and GPRS technology used by rivals AT&T(T Quote) and T-Mobile works fine around the world, but isn't good enough for Verizon.

Phone-testing standards also are ridiculously strict. So sexy new handsets, like those from Research in Motion(RIMM Quote), tend to hit the market through companies like Sprint Nextel(S Quote) before Verizon.

All this network neurosis makes Verizon the leader in domestic voice quality. But its international service has been expensive and clumsy, sometimes requiring extra phones and cables.

That might soon change. Verizon is investing in new technologies, loosening some network standards and getting better phones sooner. I've been testing two new phones in Venice, Italy: the BlackBerry Storm 9530 and the BlackBerry 8830 World Edition. So far, I'm impressed.

What you get: Communication devices that work well abroad.

Verizon has jumped on the dual-mode phone bandwagon that other carriers have been on for years. When I opened the back of both BlackBerries I found run-of-the-mill SIM cards that support once untouchable GSM and GPRS networks. The company has struck carriage deals with international players that support these standards, like Vodafone Group(VOD Quote). The result is one phone that works well on Verizon's domestic network and on international systems.