Should I switch to Verizon for the iPhone?

January 11th, 2011.

The Universe seems to agree that Verizon will be announcing the avilability of iPhone on their network at 11:00 AM Eastern Time today. I am an AT&T customer with an iPhone plan since June 29th, 2007. I was a Verizon Customer back in early 2000’s. Previously I was a Sprint customer. My view on wireless network is something like this:

Generally the quality of service greatly depends on where I’m at. There are places where one service provider had no coverage while the others do. Customer service are equally horrible.

Am I happy with AT&T service?
What I can say is that I am considering moving to other service providers like Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile.

Am I happy with the iPhone?
In general I really like the iPhone. It was the first great phone I had. I still like the iPhone.

Does Verizon have better wireless service than AT&T?
My good friend seems to think so. I still think that it depends on where you are. Certainly in Metropolitan areas AT&T wireless does suffer. At the same time I have seen lack of coverage from Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile in different places. But it is about AT&T this time. In Southern California AT&T service is not as horrible as in The Bay Area. In general, AT&T service are available where I’m at most of the times but not all. Outside of California I have mixed results. There are a lot of parts in Nevada where AT&T has no coverage while Verizon and Sprint do. One thing I can say is that AT&T has excellent coverage around Boise, Idaho. I cannot say if Verizon’s service is as worse as AT&T’s.

Things I enjoy being on AT&T network is primarily influenced by the ability to switch my phones anytime I want. It is as easy as removing the SIM Card from one phone and installing it on the other. I am currently using iPhone 3GS and Nexus One. I am planning to get an unlock Palm Pre 2. If there’s an unlock Windows Phone 7 phone with an attractive price tag, I’d get one too.

If I were to switch to Verizon, I wouldn’t be able to use different phone on the same account. There is no way I would want to pay for different accounts so that I could use different phones. Despite of the negatives on AT&T, I still prefer having to use different phones. Switching to Verizon means I would not be able to do so.

If I were a Verizon customer today, I’d definitely get the iPhone.

Now, it’s T minus 97 minutes till Verizon announcement.

 

Reasons not to move to Verizon from AT&T for the iPhone.

Previously I wrote about reasons to move to Verizon from AT&T for the iPhone. Now I’m talking about reasons not to move to Verizon from AT&T for the iPhone in general.

  • Might have to pay that pesky and expensive early termination fee to AT&T.
  • AT&T believes that their data network is still faster than Verizon’s as illustrated by Boy Genius Report which was tweeted by AT&T.
  • You prefer GSM phones, especially if you travel outside United States often.
  • AT&T is giving you packaged deal with your wireless account.

Now, those were some generic reasons why you would not want to move to Verizon from AT&T for the iPhone that I could think of at this moment. By the way, it is T minus 2 hours and 30 minutes till the Verizon Announcement.

I’ll be finishing up my thought whether I would switch to Verizon from AT&T or not.

Live Coverage Links of Verizon 1-11-11 Special Event.

Here we go again, waiting for the one who stole CES’ thunder. Verizon is having a special event in New York this Tuesday January 11th, 2011. The event starts at 11:00 AM New York Time. The first thing came to mind is iPhone. The media heavyweights have been buzzing about iPhone coming to Verizon for the past few months. The rumors flying of the self. John Gruber, the unofficial Apple leak channel, mentioned the existence of CDMA iPhone codenamed N92. A lot of Mac Journalists were invited to the event. Gizmodo did not get the event. Ryan Block is silent about it. So, it would come as no surprise if all of this are true.

SPOILER
Apple hired a few former Verizon’s employees back in 2009 who are now working at their iPhone division. They have been keeping quiet about it for so long. They also said “No Comment” on the fabled White iPhone 4.
END OF SPOILER

As usual, there will be numbers of sites providing live coverage. You can always use search for them or find it here and let me do the work for you. More links will be added as they become available.

Alphabetically ordered:

Check back for more links.

Reasons to move to Verizon from AT&T for the iPhone.

Here we go again, waiting for the one who stole CES’ thunder. Verizon is having a special event in New York this Tuesday January 11th, 2011. The event starts at 11:00 AM New York Time. The first thing came to mind is iPhone. The media heavyweights have been buzzing about iPhone coming to Verizon for the past few months. The rumors flying of the self. John Gruber, the unofficial Apple leak channel, mentioned the existence of CDMA iPhone codenamed N92. A lot of Mac Journalists were invited to the event. Gizmodo did not get the event. Ryan Block is silent about it. So, it would come as no surprise if all of this are true.

SPOILER
Apple hired a few former Verizon’s employees back in 2009 who are now working at their iPhone division. They have been keeping quiet about it for so long. They also said “No Comment” on the fabled White iPhone 4.
END OF SPOILER

As usual, there will be numbers of sites providing live coverage. You can always use search for them or find it here and let me do the work for you. More links will be added as they become available.

Alphabetically ordered:

Check back for more links.

January 11, 2011 – 11:00 AM New York Time is:

  • January 11, 2011 – 6:00 AM Hawaii-Aleutian
  • January 11, 2011 – 8:00 AM Pacific
  • January 11, 2011 – 9:00 AM Mountain
  • January 11, 2011 – 10:00 AM Central
  • January 11, 2011 – 11:00 AM Eastern
  • January 11, 2011 – 4:00 PM GMT (London,
  • January 11, 2011 – 5:00 PM Central European Time (Paris, Berlin, Rome, Madrid)
  • January 12, 2011 – 1:00 AM Tokyo Time Zone

Look up your time zone here.

Should I switch to Verizon when they have iPhone?

I’m an AT&T customer, should I switch to Verizon when they have iPhone?

If I switched, then:

  • No more phone hopping; from Nexus One to iPhone to Palm Pre etc.
  • Having the possibilities of having Bing as my default search engine; this can easily be changed I hope.
  • Have to pay the pesky termination fee to AT&T.
  • No Nexus One or Nexus S.
  • Losing the unlimited data plan.

The good news is:

  • Verizon has a better network than AT&T; so Verizon says.

Most likely I’d stay with AT&T just because I can do the phone-hopping without having to call Verizon. That’s the power of SIM-card. Even if Verizon were to support some kind of SIM-card, I wouldn’t be able to use the Nexus one as a phone anymore. The Wi-Fi Hot-Spot feature is a killer feature for me, especially without having the tethering plan.

1-11-11: Verizon Event

Once again, the population of the series of tubes are abuzz about the upcoming Verizon event on 1-11-11. That would be January 11, 2011 at 11:00 AM in Lincoln Center in New York. There’s a lot of “11” there.

Of course the Tech Elitists are saying this would be the iPhone on Verizon announcement. The main clue is that Gizmodo did not get the invitation.

As usual, there will be numbers of sites providing the live coverage. So check back for the links.