Verizon Wireless has appointed Kevin Zavaglia as president of its Northeast Market. Based at the company’s market headquarters in Morristown, New Jersey, Zavaglia will oversee all business functions across the 10-state market including New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Rhode Island, western Pennsylvania and northern Delaware.
Previously, Zavaglia served as President of the company’s New York Metro Region. Prior to that, he led Verizon Enterprise Solutions’ North America. During his 22-year career at Verizon, Zavaglia has led the Northern California Region for Verizon Wireless and served as director of business, retail and indirect sales in the New York Metro Region.
Verizon is also moving forward with its 5G Radio Specifications. The carrier last week released its second tranche of specs for 5G, including higher level information on radio control, device connections and data signals. The tranche means the specifications are now 75 percent complete. Verizon’s 5G specifications are available online to the public.
AT&T on Monday announced it has signed new agreements for Cuba roaming and direct interconnection with Cuba’s regulatory authority, the Empresa De Telecomunicaciones De Cuba (ETECSA). AT&T said the agreement means customers will soon be able to use their wireless talk, text and data while visiting Cuba.
AT&T is the last of the Tier-1 U.S. wireless carriers to sign such a deal.
AT&T also launched a text-to-donate campaign to aid those impacted by the floods in and around Baton Rouge Louisiana. AT&T wireless customers can text “RELIEF” to 80077 to donate $10 to Baton Rouge Area Foundation Louisiana Flood Relief Fund to support those affected and the most urgent local needs as we work to restore the community. Each $10 donation will appear on a customer’s wireless bill or be deducted from a prepaid balance.
Walgreens announced it will become the first retailer to integrate its loyalty program (Balance Rewards) with Android Pay across stores nationwide. The newly integrated feature will allow Balance Rewards members to earn and use loyalty points in-store through the Android Pay app without having to separately scan or enter their rewards card number.
Walgreens also offers Balance Rewards integration with Apple Pay, the company said.
Huawei has launched the SG178 multi-probe spherical near-field testing system, supporting radiating characteristics testing for Base Transceiver Station (BTS) antenna during product development and production.
Huawei said the testing system doubles the test accuracy compared to indoor far field and near field test range and supports more antenna types and wider frequency bands. The system also supports active antenna and Massive MIMO (multiple-input multiple-output) OTA (Over-The-Air) tests.