Verizon and Apple are discussing the possible development of an iPhone for Verizon, with the goal of introducing it next year, reports USA Today. Verizon wants in, after some 13.7 million iPhones were sold by AT&T, which signed up 1.6 million iPhone customers during the first quarter of 2009 — 40% of them new to AT&T.
Revenue from mobile data was up almost 40%. The iPhone provide a much higher average revenue per user (ARPU) than other wireless subscribers. The average iPhone user spends about $94.74 a month vs. $59.21 a month for an average postpaid AT&T customer.
Currently, AT&T has exclusive U.S. distribution rights to the iPhone into 2010, though specifics aren’t known. The deal was struck in 2006, when the iPhone was still on the drawing board.
Roger Entner, head of telecom research for Nielsen, says Apple would likely maintain ties with AT&T. But consumers could pick the network they wanted to use.
It would mark the first time Apple has produced a version of the iPhone for a CDMA wireless network, which is different from AT&T’s GSM technology. Vodafone, co-owner of Verizon Wireless, already sells the iPhone in Europe.
Verizon’s customer base of 80 million iPhone-less customers might represent a significant incentive to tweak the iPhone for CDMA support. Or maybe they’ll wait for LTE.
Verizon plans to move to LTE late this year and hopes to have 30 markets by 2010, significantly ahead of AT&T.
Motorola explains the principal advantages of the technology — cost: the lower cell throughput capacity of 3G technology means that more base station radios and cell sites are needed to support the rising traffic demand.
A UMTS network operating in 10 megahertz of spectrum could require up to seven base station radios, while an LTE network would require just one base station radio. That means LTE can offer, on average, more than three times the average cell capacity of today’s HSPA networks.
The implementation of MIMO antennas and beam forming technology can also improve performance by significantly boosting coverage and data throughput.
