Ever since the original iPhone, users have complained about the iPhone being on AT&T's network in the US. Many people where expecting that the "one more thing" on Monday's WWDC keynote was going to be the iPhone on a different carriers, hopefully Verizon. However the "one more thing" was video calling which made a lot Verizon customers who whated the iPhone very disappointed.
The iPhone 4 only has a GSM 3G radio which rules out Sprint and Verizon as they us CDMA, but what about T-Mobile? Well, the Kaufman Brothers investment analyst Shaw Wu, thinks that the next iPhone carrier in the US will be T-Mobile. Steve Jobs announced on Monday that the iPhone 4 will be capable of Quad-Band HSDPA/HSUPA 7.2Mbs down and 5.8Mbs up 3G speeds. The same as what T-Mobile uses, which could mean the next carrier could be T-Mobile. If you look at the sales data, Android always beats the iPhone when it is not available. But if the iPhone was available on multiple carriers that would dramatically change.
However, most analysts are saying that it would be in Apple's best interest to release the iPhone on the 2 biggest carriers in the US, Verizon and AT&T, rather than the 4th largest T-Mobile and At&T. But T-Mobile does operate around the world and it is a subsidiary of Deutsche Telekom in Germany and Apple could work out a deal to allow T-Mobile to sell the iPhone worldwide.
So will we ever see a Verizon iPhone? Probably in 2011 when the networks go along the upgrade path to 4G networks, specifically LTE which runs on GSM. In fact Verizon says that later this year it will have a LTE network up and running. Also T-Mobile is going along the LTE road while Sprint is already releasing Wimax 4G.
So what do you think? Will Verizon ever get the iPhone and will T-Mobile be the next US iPhone Carrier?
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Source: Computerworld
