The iPhone and Verizon: Why it's so hard to move.

The iPhone is now the standard for mobile phones. Nothing else has come close to it, and it has revolutionized the entire industry. Yet, there are some faults on the iPhone, mainly because of AT&T. Ever since it has on the US market, it has been on AT&T, which bad coverage, slow speeds, and much more.

Recently there have been rumors that the iPhone will come to America's largest network, Verizon. At first Apple offered Verizon exclusivity of the iPhone, and Verizon said no to that deal. Then Apple went to AT&T (then Cingular) and offered the same thing, they gladly said yes. Then the iPhone launched, now as usual with new technology, there were some problems. Then Apple announced the iPhone 3G, now there were more problems with AT&T's network with this iPhone, people complained of dropped calls, bad coverage, things like that. That's when rumors started picking up on the iPhone coming to the Verizon cell phone network. Now it seems like when people report this that it will be a snap to move the iPhone to Verizon. Well that's wrong, there are many standpoints on how hard it is to move the iPhone from one carrier to another. It affects many things, and may take years.

From a technology stand point.

From a technology stand point it is very hard to move the iPhone to Verizon. First, AT&T is a GSM based cell phone network that uses acertain type of band, T-Mobile is also another cell phone network that uses GSM. While Verizon is a CDMA based network, that also uses a certain type of radio in the cell phones that they carry, Sprint is also the other CDMA based cell phone network out of the big four in the US market. Now for the iPhone to function on Verizon it would have to be remanufactured to have a CDMA radio in it, which could take a while.

From a corporate/financial standpoint.

Now it is a bit more complex from a corporate/financial standpoint. First, it's not easy getting about 10 to 15 million AT&T customers to move to Verizon. Now when Apple does their yearly refresh of the iPhone, and it comes out to be a CDMA Verizon iPhone not everyone is going to have their contracts up. Plus not everyone bought their iPhone at the same time so it makes it even more complex, so as the iPhone is on Verizon some people may still be on AT&T, so unless AT&T waives all contract canceling fees, not everyone will move to Verizon. Also if it becomes a CDMA phone it could also affect other countries, like lets say Apple makes the iPhone CDMA and GSM, that means in another country like Japan it could be on a GSM network (like SoftBank or NTT DoCoMo) and also be on a CDMA network (like au by KDDI). Also Verizon has their own proprietary Application store, and is not letting other phones like a Windows Mobile phone or a BlackBerry to have the Windows Market Place and BlackBerry App World preloaded, so that means that the iPhone may not come with the App Store preloaded if it does go on Verizon. Plus AT&T can lose many customers if the iPhone does go on Verizon. While Verizon will of course gain many customers from the move.

Is T-Mobile more likely?

Now as I said before T-Mobile is another GSM network of the big four in the United States market. People have unlocked the iPhone for it to be on T-Mobile instead of AT&T. Now if the iPhone does go to T-Mobile it will be a little easier, but from the corporate/financial standpoints will most likely still apply. Yet, from the technology standpoint it will be easier. All Apple will have to do is that add support for T-Mobile's 3G band and its really set to go, and it won't really affect other countries around the world as much as making the iPhone CDMA, instead of GSM.

The iPhone is a phone that has had major success in its almost 3 year run. It has stayed a GSM phone and may become a CDMA phone. Yet, anything could happen, that's how technology is, ever changing.

Comments

[JD Remington]

Saw your comment on my post, you make good points here. Broadened my view.

I enjoy your writing, do you have your own blog? I would love to check it out.

[Eric Munoz]

Yes I do actually, http://eric77lv.co.nr/ :)