Rumor suggests voice & data on Verizon iPhone, AT&T talks exclusivity
Defensive comments from AT&T's chief executive Ralph de la Vega, as well as new rumors within Verizon itself, are both hinting at the appearance of a Verizon iPhone.
According to a post by All Things Digital blogger John Paczkowski, when asked whether his company was worried about rumors of a Verizon-compatible iPhone, AT&T's chief executive didn't simply state that his company had an exclusive lock on Apple's handset in the US for another couple years until 2012.
Instead, he defended AT&T's prospects by noting that a lot of his current subscribers are tied to family plans or corporate contracts, making it simply too difficult to leave. AT&T also continues to work on its network, incrementally improving the situation for iPhone users in the hopes that they won't want to leave.
Additional rumors published by BGR, attributed to the site's "Verizon guys," say an upcoming CDMA iPhone may launch with VoRA (Voice over [EvDO] Rev A).
VoRA would enable a Verizon iPhone to use data (such as accessing the web) while making a phone call, something that Verizon's current phones can't do, but which Apple advertises as a feature of the existing UMTS iPhone, which has no problem accessing the data network while on a phone call.
If Verizon were preparing VoRA for deployment on a new CDMA iPhone, it would erase one reason that could hold Apple back from wanting to deliver the iPhone across the incompatible US networks: a confusing lack of feature parity between the two mobile networks.
According to a post by All Things Digital blogger John Paczkowski, when asked whether his company was worried about rumors of a Verizon-compatible iPhone, AT&T's chief executive didn't simply state that his company had an exclusive lock on Apple's handset in the US for another couple years until 2012.
Instead, he defended AT&T's prospects by noting that a lot of his current subscribers are tied to family plans or corporate contracts, making it simply too difficult to leave. AT&T also continues to work on its network, incrementally improving the situation for iPhone users in the hopes that they won't want to leave.
Additional rumors published by BGR, attributed to the site's "Verizon guys," say an upcoming CDMA iPhone may launch with VoRA (Voice over [EvDO] Rev A).
VoRA would enable a Verizon iPhone to use data (such as accessing the web) while making a phone call, something that Verizon's current phones can't do, but which Apple advertises as a feature of the existing UMTS iPhone, which has no problem accessing the data network while on a phone call.
If Verizon were preparing VoRA for deployment on a new CDMA iPhone, it would erase one reason that could hold Apple back from wanting to deliver the iPhone across the incompatible US networks: a confusing lack of feature parity between the two mobile networks.