U.S. iPhone customers have been eagerly awaiting a Verizon-branded iPhone almost since day one.
Starting February 10, they’ll have that option. Verizon announced Tuesday that it would soon offer the iPhone 4 on its 3G network. The 16-GB model will cost $200 and a 32-GB model will go for $300, both with a two-year contract.
But will you want to make the switch? That depends on what’s important to you.
Here are a few things to consider in weighing which network to go with.
What did we miss? Ask your burning questions in the comments, and if we’re able to get answers, we’ll add them to this list.
Ability to Make and Hold a Call
If there’s one thing that AT&T has been criticized for, its the network’s frequently dropped calls. It’s not uncommon for iPhone users in busy metro areas, such as New York and San Francisco, to lose voice connections several times over the course of a 5- or 10-minute phone call.
Other AT&T handsets have the problem, based on anecdotal reports, but the iPhone seems to have it worst.
It’s very likely that Verizon will do better.
That’s because AT&T, which sold an estimated 15.8 million iPhones in the United States in 2010, has been overwhelmed by demand for the phone. IPhone callers utilize data services far more than users of most other phones, a February, 2010 Consumer Reports study found. With so much data usage, phones of all varieties are frequently forced back to AT&T’s older and slower EDGE network, or are forced off the cellular network altogether.
Verizon, with a more extensive network and no iPhone users, will almost certainly deliver better voice performance. (And Verizon already has experience with Android phones, whose users are proving even more data-hungry than iPhone customers.)
Whether it’s able to maintain that level of service if millions of iPhones flood its network is another question, however.
Advantage: Verizon
