The nation’s largest wireless carrier and cable-TV provider announced today that they will resell each other’s services along the Front Range.

As part of the partnership, Verizon Wireless and Comcast rolled out a slate of incentives for new and existing customers. Subscribers of the so-called quadruple play – Verizon wireless service plus Comcast’s triple play of video, Internet and VoIP services – will receive a Visa gift card of up to $300.

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Comcast and Verizon are teaming up to offer a Visa gift card of up to $300 to qualifying subscribers.

Verizon will also double the 4G LTE data plan from 2 GB to 4 GB, while Comcast is offering a complementary 12-month upgrade to Blast!, the Xfinity® Internet service that provides download speeds of up to 30 Mbps.

In addition to the Front Range, the companies are also rolling out the joint marketing partnership in Atlanta; Chicago; Kansas City, Mo.; Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn.; and Salt Lake City. Earlier this year, Read more…

Blogger’s note: This is the first in an occasional feature that will spotlight Colorado-based tech startups. The stories will be posted here on Friday, and many of them will appear in print the following Monday.

Last summer, the Chick Fil-A restaurant at Southlands Mall in Aurora launched a Facebook campaign to connect with its customers.

The promotion caught the eye of Denver entrepreneur and self-proclaimed social media guru Jeff Lange, but for all the wrong reasons.

Andy Cross/The Denver Post

Jeff Lange demos the ReturnMore campaign for Chick Fil-A.

The restaurant’s Facebook page didn’t have a vanity URL. The flier announcing the page didn’t include a link. And there wasn’t an app to track the first 50 people to “like” the page, who were promised a free meal as part of the promotion.

Lange slammed the effort on Twitter and Google+ and in a blog post titled “a terrible Facebook ‘Like Us’ promotion.”

Turns out, his complaints worked far better than the campaign itself. Read more…

During his visit in Boulder on Tuesday, President Barack Obama spent a few moments with Sphero, a robotic ball controlled with a smartphone and developed by Boulder-based startup Orbotix.

“Excuse me, give me some space to drive my ball,” Obama says just before he gives “Sphero” a spin.

Though Obama hadn’t heard of Orbotix prior to the test drive, the company has indirect ties with his administration. Read more…

John Prieto/The Denver Post

Andrés Espiñeira, CEO of Englewood-based Pixorial, which is launching an app to go with Google Drive.

The curtain was raised today on Google Drive, the online search giant’s answer to storage services such as Apple’s iCloud and DropBox.

About 20 technology companies have partnered with Google to launch applications that will work with the long-rumored and oft-delayed cloud service. Among those partners is Englewood-based Pixorial, which allows users to edit and share videos online regardless of format.

“We’re thrilled to have Pixorial integrating with Google Drive,” said Google executive Read more…

RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post

Steve Boxer of the Denver Broncos video team prepares a bank of iPads for players and coaching staff.

In this edition of ATA, iPads invade the NFL, perhaps foreshadowing a partnership between two of the nation’s top brands.

As reported this morning, the Denver Broncos are ditching the old printed playbook for iPads and apps. They are the third team to turn to a digital playbook and certainly won’t be the last.

Broncos officials told me last week that they reviewed a slate of Android tablets before going forward with Apple’s market-leading iPad. Apple was involved in the process, and representatives from the Cupertino, Calif.-based company considered showing up at Dove Valley Read more…

Dish Network Corporation Chairman Charlie Ergen joked about launching a satellite with a Chinese rocket during an "Entrepreneurs Unplugged" event at the University of ColoradoTuesday night, April 17, 2012.

Dish Network chairman and co-founder Charlie Ergen shed some light on his mobile broadband plan Tuesday evening during the Silicon Flatirons’ Entrepreneurs Unplugged event at CU-Boulder.

In a conversation afterward, he seemed excited about the prospect of launching a wireless business. He says the venture would create an estimated 20,000 jobs. Dish, which serves 14 million satellite-TV subscribers, already employs about 30,000 nationwide.

Ergen believes consolidation will continue in the wireless industry, with just “three or four” players left standing when it’s all said and done.

Two of the four Read more…

Englewood-based WOW Internet, Cable & Phone will acquire Knology for $1.5 billion in cash and assumed debt, the companies announced today.

Both companies provide phone, broadband and cable-TV services, with Georgia-based Knology focusing on midsize cities in the southeastern U.S. Wow operates in Michigan, Illinois, Ohio and Indiana. The combined entity will have more than 800,000 customers, and its services will be available to more than 2.8 million households in 13 states.

Under the terms of the agreement, WOW will pay $750 million in cash to acquire all of the outstanding shares of Knology for $19.75 per share, a 34 percent Read more…

AP file photo

Level 3 is showcasing its technology at the NAB in Las Vegas this week.

Netflix, one of Level 3 Communications’ biggest customers, has been hit hard over the past year.

It started with a rate hike that drew considerable backlash, followed by a widely panned, and later withdrawn, decision to split its DVD rental and streaming businesses. Netflix stock is trading at about a third of its 52-week high.

But the company’s core customers have continued to grow their online video consumption, which bodes well for Broomfield-based Level 3, which makes money based on the amount of content it carries for the likes of Netflix and MLB. Read more…

Denver Post

T3Media provides video management services to the likes of the NCAA.

Denver-based Thought Equity Motion, considered one of the nation’s most valuable technology startups, said today that it has changed its name to T3Media. The company provides cloud-based video management and licensing services.

“T3Media reflects the evolution of our company as we grow both our licensing and platform businesses to serve the needs of leading digital content producers as well as sports, news, and entertainment library owners worldwide,” T3Media CEO Kevin Schaff said in a statement. “The ‘T’ ties back to our original name and the ‘3’ represents the three Read more…

File photo

Ed Mueller and his wife, Susan.

Former Qwest chief executive Ed Mueller pocketed a cool $43 million after selling the Denver-based company to CenturyLink.

Mueller’s son, Michael, didn’t do too shabby, either, following another CenturyLink acquisition.

The younger Mueller is a senior portfolio manager at Savvis, which CenturyLink purchased in July. The company paid him $243,585 in 2011, according to a regulatory filing.

CenturyLink said in the filing that Mueller’s compensation included $156,600 in salary, $31,300 in annual incentive bonuses and restricted stock with a grant date fair value of $55,685. He joined Savvis in July 2008.

The disclosure was included Read more…