According to the Wall Street Journal, Verizon has announced a change to their policies on exclusive handset deals. Under the terms of the new policy, Verizon will allow handset manufacturers to sell otherwise VZW-exclusive models to small wireless carriers (those with less than 500,000 subscribers) after a 6-month period.
Now, we’re all for getting rid of (or at least shortening) exclusive handset deals. We’d love to be able to grab a Palm Pre on AT&T or an iPhone on Verizon. But this doesn’t do squat. Less than 500,000 subscribers? Great. Even MetroPCS, which is one of the smaller nationwide carriers, has over 6 million subscribers. Sure, this will help the handful of MVNOs still managing to stay afloat out there under the 500k mark – but then Verizon goes and tacks on a 6-month wait. Way to help the smallest group of people in the least helpful way possible, Verizon.