Some bad news for customers on Verizon’s unlimited data plan; like its competitor AT&T, Verizon revealed it has started throttling customers that it believes to be using an excessive amount of data. The carrier found that the top 5% of its data users were using 2 GB+ each month, and therefore those are the customers that this new policy will affect.

Verizon Wireless wants to crack down on folks who perform illegal tethering on their devices—if you happen to fall under that category of using apps to help you “tether illegally,” then you might want to sit up and take notice. Verizon will now show a warning page when it catches a user tethering without paying, and provides a number to call to set up a mobile broadband package.

Upon OS X Lion’s release, those with a Verizon mobile broadband device had to avoid upgrading due to lack of compatibility with its (required) VZAccess Manager software at the time. The carrier has now issued an update to make the software compatible with OS X Lion, so its customers are now free to upgrade. However, at this time, only the following devices are supported…

Wouldn’t you like to be able to apply Apple’s latest iOS updates to your iDevice without plugging it into your computer and waiting? Of course you would, and if the rumor is correct, that’s just what Apple intends to do starting with iOS 5. You’d still have to apply that last iOS update to 5 the old fashion way though.

AT&T subscribers can thank competition with the Verizon iPhone for a plethora of improvements, including unlimited mobile to any mobile carrier, 1,000 free rollover minutes, and now an extra 2GB of bandwidth for the DataPro tethering plan. There’s still no personal hotspot feature support, but that’s more Apple’s fault than anything else. We’ll see what happens when iOS 4.3 makes in onto our iPhones.

If you’re a little bummed that you’re still an AT&T subscriber when you could be on Verizon now that they have an iPhone, rest assured, you still have a plethora of reasons to be happy staying put. First, you likely have a faster data connection that’s usable while talking. AT&T recently added a new unlimited mobile to any mobile feature with unlimited texting free of charge, and now you can even bank an extra 1,000 rollover minutes just for saying “Yes.”

An Apple-branded cell service could come in the form of a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO), which is cell service offered by a company that does not physically own a license to the radio frequencies or tower/cable infrastructure necessary for providing that service. MVNOs instead lease capacity from other companies who do maintain the infrastructure, and Apple may be in a position to do just that.

Today, AT&T posted a message on their site that indicates they’re going to expand their unlimited mobile to mobile feature to include any mobile on any carrier. Details are basically nonexistent other than the image above, but we know this much: AT&T intends to bundle this with their unlimited texting plan, and it’s obviously intended to draw consumers away from Verizon now that the iPhone is available on multiple carriers in the US. But is it enough?

Walmart has announced they’ll be carrying the Verizon iPhone 4 on launch day in select stores. So, if you’re wanting to get your hands on a Verizon iPhone 4, you’ll be able to do so by lining up at one of the nearly 600 Walmart locations across the country on February 10th, 2010. These specific stores will also carry Verizon iPhone 4 accessories (remember, cases may not necessarily be the same as GSM iPhone 4 cases). I’d recommend you get there early if you want one.

If you’ve been waiting for iOS 4.3, your wait may be coming to an end. We now have ample reason to believe that Apple will be releasing iOS 4.3—which will include the in-app subscription and personal hotspot features—in less than two weeks. Not only that, but AT&T may even support the personal hotspot feature on their network along with their recently announced increasing data caps for tethering plans just before Valentine’s Day.