iPhone for Verizon

[nwoods]

Verizon's major disadvantage: Verizon's CDMA technology works in few places outside USA. AT&T's GSM technology is close to ubiquitous.

I agree that is a limitation, but not for the vast majority of US citizens. A much bigger disadvantage is the inablilty to talk and use data at the same time. CDMA bandwidth just isn't capable of it, unlike AT&T's GSM network. Coverage is admittedly better, but the bandwidth is not.

For example:

 

[chrismc]

I agree that is a limitation, but not for the vast majority of US citizens. A much bigger disadvantage is the inablilty to talk and use data at the same time. CDMA bandwidth just isn't capable of it, unlike AT&T's GSM network. Coverage is admittedly better, but the bandwidth is not.

Its not a bandwidth issue. CDMA 3G (EvDO Rev.A) has historically delivered more data throughput than GSM 3G. The issue is one of the actual CDMA protocol. It does not support having simultaneous voice and data calls open, as GSM does. Even with all the bandwidth in the world, a CDMA 3G phone cannot do voice+data.

I'm not sure how Verizon handles it with LTE, but Sprint's 4G phones let you use voice and data simultaneously since their 4G data is an entirely separate WiMax network (two radios in the phone) that works alongside the CDMA 3G call.

 

[nwoods]

Thanks for the clarification Chris. I knew some of that, but you articulated it way more easily and clearly than I could ever have!

This is an interesting and very important article about bandwidth throttling and data optimization that Verizon will be implementing on data intensive devices like the iPhone:
http://www.9to5mac.com/50675/verizo...p-5-of-bandwidth-hogs-iphone-users#more-50675

 

[RusherRacing]

Well i ordered one last night for the wife lets see how she likes it.

I will have a couple apps for me though mapping, photography etc.

Hopefully it works good for us. If we really like it then I might have to upgrade the crackberry when the LTE/4G version comes out.

 

[haven]

Regarding CDMA outside USA, the Chinese carrier China Telecom uses CDMA, and has close to 100 million subscribers. South Korea uses CDMA exclusively. There are 46 million subscribers for South Korean mobile telecoms. If only 1% of these subscribers chooses to buy an iPhone, that's 1.4 million phones.

Conclusion: Apple has good reason to produce a CDMA version of the iPhone. The real question is, Why did Apple wait so long? Exclusive deal with AT&T is my guess.

Recognizing the limitation of CDMA when traveling to many foreign countries other than China and South Korea, Verizon has a Global Traveler program that can help Verizon customers who are infrequent travelers get equipment that will work in your overseas destination. Call (800) 711-8300 for more information. I think the Global Traveler service is free, and can route calls to your USA number over to the international phone.

The iFixit folks have an illustrated teardown of the iPhone for Verizon. Among the interesting details is the fact that the new phone uses a Qualcomm chip that can handle either GSM or CDMA. http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/iPhone-4-Verizon-Teardown/4693/1

I expect the new iPhone 5 coming this summer will work with either CDMA or GSM. This would reduce inventory headaches, and give customers the ability to switch to a different carrier. It's less likely that the new iPhone 5 will have the capability to communicate at 4G network speeds.

 

[haven]

Test result: ATT twice as fast as Verizon for download to iPhone

Ookla is the company behind SpeedTest.net, the popular Internet speed measuring site. By pointing your web browser at SpeedTest.net, you can check how fast your Internet connection is handling typical upload and download chores.

Ookla also created a free test application for iOS devices. By logging the results of people using the free test app, Ookla is able to compare the speed of the Verizon and ATT networks.

The result (drumroll, please): The ATT network is twice as fast as the Verizon network at downloading (1769 kbps vs 848 kbps), and a little faster at uploading. More than 120,000 test results were analyzed to come up with these numbers.

http://gigaom.com/apple/verizon-network-can-handle-iphone-stress-but-atts-still-twice-as-fast/

My reading of these test results is that neither ATT nor Verizon 3G service is very fast. I'm looking forward to 4G speed for my next smart phone. Since there's no indication that Apple will include 4G in the next version of the iPhone, that means I'll be looking for an Android phone.

For example, the Samsung Galaxy S 4G phone running Android 2.3 averaged a download speed of about 7800 kbps in a recent test on the T-Mobile HSPA+ network. That's more like it!