as well! I've never had any major problems with their coverage in my area, and with the exodus to Verizon, it'll ease the strain that's there now and we can FINALLY get tethering.

This might be a showstopper for me. As much as I detest AT&T, I use the Internet a lot while talking on the phone.

I seriously doubt that after the bashing that Verizon has given the iPhone that Apple will be making a deal with them any time soon. And even if it did, there will be just as many people squealing about Verizon as there are AT&T, maybe even more after it brings Verizon's network to it's knees.

I have many friends that have iPhones and they all, including myself, are just fine with AT&T.

I have had ZERO issues with ATT, and there is no way I'm moving to Verizon. I can't stand their policies. And besides, with a Verizon iPhone, if I'm on a call I can't access the internet, and I use that all the time.

Here in Portland I've had no real issues with AT&T on the iPhone. Overall better phone performance than T-Mobile, fewer dead spots, better coverage in places like the coast.

I know others have had real issues in some areas, but not so much here. If the iPhone became available on Verizon, I don't think I'd have any reason to switch.

...of the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Ocean!

The US, due to corporate greed and lack of critical density/momentum, the connection is just about the worst on the planet. Verizon is a bit better than AT&T, but not much. It still pales by comparison to developing countries.

If they give it to Verizon, I'll never have one. Their business practices are predatory, and they cripple their hardware.

If Apple wants to hit a grand slam, they'll make the iPhone 4.0 able to roam across all service providers so each user receives the strongest signal no matter where they are in the world. At the end of the month, each service provider would receive their portion of that user's service plan.

Finally, service providers could focus on growing their networks because they would know instantly where they are making revenue and where they are not.

This is the future and I hope Apple is using its influence to make it happen.

Read more of my ideas here: http://bit.ly/4wq4jU

Hey, as soon as "BOB's Telephone and pizza" service opens in my area I am dumping AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, all of them. :-)

BOBs offers pizza with every 20 calls..... and I mean real pizza. And none of those crummy coupons...... his mom cooks it fresh. :-)

Now your phone comes with a cheap camera, and a cheap mp3 player so it does everything. Ain't it really great.

Hey, I cant wait.

Just a thought,
en

Maybe the service on AT&T will improve a bit for those of us sticking with AT&T to avoid termination fees and the price of new hardware. And as a shareholder of AAPL, the more iPhones, the merrier. I don't think adding a Verizon -compatible iPhone will double its sales, but it will certainly increase them. Oh happy day!

so without knowing what comes with a Verizon switch, so many people are just willing to bail? This is like the many people comparing a rumored tablet to other devices. Give me a break!

Let me explain further...
1. Verizon LOVES to nickel and dime for every little feature on a phone or limit those features. From bluetooth to apps, they have a reputation for turning off features unless you buy it from Verizon. Hopefully, this wouldn't happen if the iPhone switched but given their history, I'm going to wait and let others go first.

2. Speed - several studies have been done showing iPhone owners use way more data than any other smart phone. A switch to Verizon might level that playing field out or if the switch is massive (or includes a rumored tablet being added on) perhaps Verizon's network will struggle as well.

3. Coverage - from my experience, this is a depends where you live situation. Where I live, AT&T has better or just as good as Verizon. I have traveled to many other cities and not had any major problems save one - Phoenix, AZ. If I lived in Phoenix I would run, not walk, to a Verizon store. I'm talking only about calls and since Verizon doesn't even have the iPhone it is difficult to say how well the 3G coverage will be on their network.

I'm just saying while AT&T has it's problems, I'm not relying on Verizon being some savior at this point. I think parity will come in to play more than likely and it will get back to the phone and plan pricing.

I understand the AT&T deal (no one else would take the chance - so bravo AT&T)

The chance? What chance? The chance to sell a phone? Yeah, no other carrier would do that? The only thing they took a 'chance' on was giving Apple total control over the phone (including advertising - ATT can't advertise or even mention the iPhone, apparently). Or giving them a cut of the monthly revenues they made, rather than the one-time subsidies every other phone maker got (which changed to the standard way after the first year). They agreed to gouge the over-loyal Apple fanbase by forcing them to take a data plan, whether they wanted it or not? Yeah, that must have been hard.

And look how well ATT has handled that chance! They've neglected their service to the point it is now overloaded. They hacked together their Visual Voicemail support into their infrastructure so badly that it took them forever to fix it so they could offer their iPhone users MMS, they still can't figure out how to get tethering to work without their network failing. And they haven't even figured out how to make a good commercial.

Is it the service provider or the handset that determines whether a person can do both at the same time. I mean, it's all digital, why can't Verizon's network be able to handle both?

Most of Verizon's commercials of late have all been mocking AT&T's 3G coverage, which AT&T tries to whitewash with maps showing "regular" wireless service as if they were 3G, but they haven't really targeted iPhones. I'm an Apple shareholder who would love to have the iPhone at Verizon. h***, just having the choices that are/have come to Verizon recently with the Droid, the Pre Plus, and now potentially the iPhone. As a Verizon customer I'll be in hog heaven with choices come summer when my contract expires.