Verizon expands backup service

Verizon is making its Verizon Online Backup and Sharing service easier to use, adding drag and drop and automated storage features so that consumers and businesses can more easily back up the documents, photos and other digital media stored on PCs.

This is the third iteration of the service, which has been around for more than a year, according to a Verizon spokesman. Consumers and businesses can protect themselves from file-eating viruses, hard-drive crashes and losses by theft, house fire or other disaster by storing their important documents in the Verizon network.

“The other interesting aspect to this is that you can share photos or other documents with anyone you want to share them with,” the spokesman explained. “A lot of people like to share photos with family members. All you have to do is give them the access information, and you can give it to as many people as you want.”

The service enables users to share material as “read only” or as “read and upload” for collaboration. The new features include thumbnail views of stored files for quick review without having to open each file, drag and drop for easy “right-clicking” and sharing of files, and automatic scheduled backup of computer files.

The cost of Verizon Online Backup and Sharing starts at $1.99 a month for 1 gigabytes of storage, with 5 GB available at $4.99, 10 GB at $6.99, 20 GB at $12.99 and 50 GB at $30.99 a month. Verizon also combines its Internet Security Suite with the backup service at rates of $4 to $5 extra per month.