Bloomberg: Apple to offer Verizon CDMA iPhone in January 2011

Rumors of a Verizon-compatible CDMA iPhone resurfaced again Tuesday, when Bloomberg reported it has been told the handset will arrive in January of 2011.

Citing two people "familiar with the plans," author Amy Thomson wrote that the largest wireless provider in the U.S. will start selling the iPhone in 2011, marking the end of exclusivity for AT&T.

"The device will be available to customers in January, according to the people, who declined to be named because the information isn't public," the report said.

The last mainstream media report on a Verizon iPhone came back in March, when The Wall Street Journal reported that Apple was working on two new phones — one assumed to be the just-released iPhone 4, while the other was said to be a CDMA iPhone compatible with the Verizon network. That report said such phones were not scheduled to go into mass production until September, and it was "unclear" when the model would become available for sale.

Since its release in 2007, the iPhone has only been available in models compatible with UMTS-GSM networks. In the U.S., only AT&T and T-Mobile operate such networks, and AT&T has been the exclusive carrier of the iPhone stateside since it was first announced.

Earlier this month, Taiwanese industry publication DigiTimes reported that a CDMA iPhone would be assembled and begin shipping to Apple in the fourth quarter of 2010. It said that Pegatron is already producing the hardware in its plants in Shanghai, China.