Alas all ye haters of AT&T. If you love the iPhone but hate their exclusive carrier, beginning February 10th you’ll now have another option.
Yesterday, Verizon president Lowell McAdam announced what we’ve all been predicting for months — that the exclusive marriage between Apple and AT&T is no more. Or at least it’s no longer exclusive. AT&T must now share the iPhone with its new mistress: Verizon.
For years, iPhone customers complained of constantly dropped calls and poor coverage areas while locked into an AT&T agreement. Except the blame was always a bit unfair. The iPhone was such an amazing and cutting edge product at the time of its introduction, that no carrier was prepared for the type of new technology Apple was presenting. Before the iPhone, customers used a cell phone as — well — a phone. But when the iPhone landed on the scene, actual phone calls took a backseat to SMS text messaging, MMS, email, video watching, and web surfing, which no other device could previously do like the iPhone could.
The cell phone was really no longer a phone. It was basically a handheld computer that could make a rare phone call, if you really needed it to. Every cell network at the time was only built for voice calls and limited web browsing with those old-fashioned pseudo web pages that were practically useless. But on its new mobile device, Apple made the web page look like it does on your computer, which required a million times more bandwidth. And so, like most every cell provider at the time, AT&T was similar to a 2 lane country highway that could accommodate an average amount of traffic daily. Except the iPhone overtook that same 2 lane country highway and put quadruple the amount of traffic on it — which clogged the highway beyond belief.
The good news today is actually for AT&T customers, who will soon see an incredible increase in their network service, once a large chunk of customers flee to Verizon expecting greener pastures. But the not so good news will be for Verizon customers, who will soon find out that once all the former AT&T customers race over to the Verizon highway, the network traffic snarl will likely be just as bad there too. It’ll be like getting out of one line at the grocery store in favor of another that appears quicker. Except once you’re in the new line, you realize your old line might not have been so bad after all and is suddenly moving smoothly.
If any new Verizon iPhone customer takes an overseas trip, they’ll be reminded of one major problem: AT&T utilizes GSM technology like the rest of the world, which means an AT&T iPhone will work worldwide. But Verizon utilizes CDMA technology, which will leave you high and dry one mile off the shores of America. Boo… Oh, and the iPhone promises the ability to multi-task, meaning you can surf the web while simultaneously talking on the phone. Except CDMA technology doesn’t allow for that. So you’ll have to hang up, pick one task, and do one thing at a time. Good luck!
