Telesite USA

iPhone: A New Hor- excuse me Verizon

January 18, 2011 – 12:00 am

After a long time boasting an “app” for almost every function under the sun, the iPhone has since been lacking just one thing diversity. AT&T‘s reign as the exclusive iPhone carrier will soon come to an end, as Verizon, after much discussion from a technological standpoint, has finally come to terms with Apple as a second service provider to offer the iPhone device. But what will this mean for AT&T, whose iPhone sales have been among the bright spots for the company in an otherwise rocky business period.Though at first glance it might seem as if losing out on iPhone customers could be an irreparable blow to the carrier’s bread and butter, this recent news might actually have some silver lining, at least for current AT&T iPhone users. As many analysts predict a mass exodus from current AT&T subscribers over to Verizon, those who stay may see an improvement in network performance. The much publicized complaints about the AT&T iPhone network can be largely contributed to the heavy traffic among the countless current iPhone users. With more iPhone owners switching to the new network, it will inevitably free up space for those remaining to cruise at higher speeds and with less technical difficulties (i.e. dropped calls, undelivered texts).It remains to be seen whether Verizon’s iPhone Network performs better in practice than its AT&T counterpart, not to mention the degree to which Verizon cuts into AT&T’s customer base vs. its own current Droid-using subscribers. With iPhone users now split between the two carriers, it’s highly likely the biggest winner in this new partnership is the generic iPhone user, better serviced by AT&T and Verizon splitting the cumulative iPhone burden, resulting in higher performance networks for all.The iPhone will officially be made available to Verizon and Apple stores on February 10th, with pre-orders beginning on February 3^rd for current Verizon customers.