Verizon uses CDMA, and could not rebuild their network in a few months. Everyone will be moving to LTE in the next few years, but the timing was wrong for Verizon on the iPhone.
AT&T is probably the best of the GSM providers in the US.
Verizon uses CDMA, and could not rebuild their network in a few months.
Well, with 80% of the world's mobile use being on GSM, it seems that Verizon is on the wrong side... :-)
Verizon uses CDMA, and could not rebuild their network in a few months. Everyone will be moving to LTE in the next few years, but the timing was wrong for Verizon on the iPhone.
Here's an article about Verizon "kicking itself" for not going with the iPhone... :-) and the next cel company network to go with iPhone being T-Mobile
Posted Dec 2nd 2009 2:40PM by Brian White
Apple's (AAPL) iPhone has been the biggest feather in the cap of U.S. partner AT&T (T), which has recruited millions of new wireless customers every quarter just based on the iPhone handset alone. Without it, AT&T could have slipped far behind larger rival Verizon Wireless in the last few years. In part due to the iPhone's incredible success, Verizon Wireless had to buy rival Alltel earlier this year just to keep up (and surpass) AT&T's wireless subscriber numbers. But what would happen if the iPhone went to another wireless carrier?
The rumor for over a year is that Verizon, kicking itself over not partnering with Apple for iPhone exclusivity back at the start of 2007, really wanted a version of the iPhone to sell itself once AT&T's exclusivity contract ended with Apple. But then again, the iPhone was built for the technical platform AT&T's wireless network in the U.S. uses, not Verizon's (which is completely different). Apple would have to swap in quite a few things just to make a Verizon Wireless version of the iPhone work. So, what other carrier would be able to pick up the iPhone in the U.S. as it is built right now and make it usable instantly?
Try T-Mobile USA, the U.S. arm of German telecom giant Deutsche Telekom. T-Mobile USA uses the same technical network as AT&T, so it makes a natural fit for the carrier to carry the iPhone if at all possible. There is no doubt Apple would love to have a second iPhone partner in the U.S. so that it could sell even more handsets.
Doug Reid with Thomas Weisel thinks this is a definite possibility as well some time next year. On top of that, Apple already sells the iPhone with T-Mobile in Germany -- so why not the U.S.? Apple's device, which is in a league of its own, is doing incredible well even on an AT&T network that was ranked last in 19 of 26 cities where Consumer Reports recently ranked wireless carrier performance. Another partner and the iPhone would be unstoppable -- and it seems like it already is in many ways.