There have been some very interesting tidbits of news coming out of Verizon Wireless lately. First, they want to open up their network to allow outside hardware and software makers to add value to their network.

Then, last Friday, Verizon Wireless announced that they have chosen LTE as their 4G wireless broadband solution. This technology was developed within the Third Generation Partnership Project and is a significant move for Verizon Wireless. In essence, it means they will abandon their CDMA network and adopt a GSM network. For those unaware, CDMA is primarily used in North American while GSM is the global standard that most every other telco on earth uses.

This is great news for consumers!!! If Verizon follows through on opening up their network, this could finally mean that consumers can use the fantastic handsets from Europe and Asia. Up to this point, Verizon customers have been stuck with feature-less phones that have been ‘cripled’ by Verizon in order to force us to use Verizon’s expensive premium services.

This is also great news GSM handset makers, including Nokia. Naturally, they just announced their support for Verizon’s LTE decision. I have recently been able to trial some Nseries phones from Nokia (including the N95) and have been very impressed with Nokia’s offerings. While Nokia has an amazing market share in Europe and Asia (they are the worlds number one handset maker in terms of sales), they have barely cracked the market in the US. I’m hoping getting Nokia’s in the hands of Verizon’s customers will help change that because I feel very stongly about Nokia’s platform.