In an interview with BusinessWeek, Anthony Melone, Verizon Wireless' chief technology officer, said his company is prepared if Apple decides to end its exclusive agreement with AT&T in 2010.
"We have put things in place already," Melone reportedly said. "We are prepared to support that traffic."
The company official did not, however, comment on the prospect of the iPhone becoming available on Verizon. But various reports as of late have suggested Apple could be working with chip-maker Qualcomm for a CDMA-capable iPhone that could run on the Verizon network. While there is some debate as to whether the phone would be a dual-mode, also compatible with GSM networks, or solely CDMA, reports have pegged the new handset for a possible launch in the third quarter of 2010.
Some analysts believe a Verizon iPhone in 2010 is a very likely scenario. Piper Jaffray believes there is a 70 percent chance Apple will launch the handset in mid-calendar year 2010. With 89 million customers, Verizon would add a great number of potential customers for Apple to expand the iPhone to.
But some others believe that a deal between Apple and Verizon would be too complicated, citing the incompatibility of the current phone with its network, and also the conflicting interests between the two companies. Others have viewed T-Mobile as a potential candidate, as it and AT&T are the only nationwide GSM networks in the U.S.
Verizon has invested nearly $19 billion in its wireless network over the last three years, and made acquisitions of companies like Alltell to improve its network. Melone said his company's investment in its network is evidence that it takes its service seriously.
AT&T's network, meanwhile, has struggled since the launch of the iPhone 3GS, and key features like multimedia messaging and tethering were delayed to prevent a strain on the network. But Melone told BusinessWeek that Verizon would not have those same issues.
"We will handle it if we ever get it," he said.
142 Comments
Nothing we didn't already know: Verizon would be more than happy to carry the iPhone, but no idea what Apple's plans are.
Verizon has definitely been better at buiding out it's network than ATT. I'm sure they've taken this time to learn from ATT's failures.
My neighbor who works for Verizon in their network division told me that they have been working on prepping their network to support the iPhone. Take it for what it's worth.
Verizon has definitely been better at buiding out it's network than ATT. I'm sure they've taken this time to learn from ATT's failures.
Are there any statistics that show the volume ofdata traffic in AT&T and Verizon? And what increase would the iPhone bring?
We really don't know how well Verizon will actually do.
Isn't Verizon supposed to start activating a LTE network next year? Maybe a gsm/lte version of the phone, since I though that both At&t and Verizon were going to that technology.
Jason