Is The iPhone Coming To Verizon In 2010?

iphone verizon

AT&T has been under fire lately for many reasons, but mostly because their network can’t really handle the data monster that is the iPhone. A couple weeks ago, AT&T even went as far as mentioning that it may charge iPhone users on a per-byte basis in the near future. I predict that this will happen sooner than later.

In the meantime, Verizon seems to prepping up its network for the iPhone. According to BusinessWeek:

Verizon Wireless has even made upgrades that would make its network more capable of handling extra traffic that would be generated by the iPhone, Verizon Wireless Chief Technology Officer Anthony Melone says in an interview.

“We have put things in place already,” Melone tells Bloomberg BusinessWeek. “We are prepared to support that traffic.”

It’s interesting to note that a few weeks ago, Verizon ridiculized AT&T andApple’s iPhone with their ad campaign called “there’s a map for that”, but now they expect to get the iPhone…

Even though Verizon appears to be a more reliable network than AT&T, I really doubt the iPhone will go to them next year. The main reason is that Verizon is a CDMA network while pretty much the rest of the world operates on the GSM network. This is just a hardware issue but I don’t think Apple will make the necessary changes just to catter to Verizon specifications.

Besides, Apple has a 5 year exclusive agreement with AT&T and this contract is supposed to expire in 2012. Now of course they could cancel this agreement but I believe it would cost Apple lots of this money it makes from the iPhone.

If anything, I think the iPhone would go to T-Mobile, but this is pure speculation and I don’t have any proof to back this up. It’s just a gut feeling.

Do you think the iPhone will go to Verizon next year? Would you make the switch from AT&T to Verizon if that was the case?

Image: Momentum Of Failure