Will users flee AT&T if Verizon (or another carrier) gets the iPhone? - Yahoo! News"As (unconfirmed) reports continue to trickle in claiming that Apple is preparing to churn out millions of CDMA-ready iPhones, analysts and execs in the wireless industry are scrambling to predict what might happen if AT&T loses its exclusivity deal with Apple in the coming months.
The latest evidence suggesting that another U.S. carrier — perhaps the biggest of them all, Verizon Wireless — is about to get the iPhone comes from wireless analyst Jeffrey Fidacaro of Susquehanna Financial Group, who (in a note to investors snagged by AppleInsider) writes that 'checks with overseas supplies' indicate that Apple is gearing up to build about 3 million CDMA iPhones in December alone, which would put Cupertino 'on track' for the launch of a CDMA-ready iPhone in 'early' 2011.
For now, Apple has only been making GSM versions of the iPhone, which are compatible with AT&T’s GSM cellular network. With a CDMA iPhone, however, Apple would be free to jump to a CDMA carrier like Sprint or Verizon Wireless — assuming its exclusivity deal with AT&T is expired or otherwise kaput. (GSM carrier T-Mobile is another option that’s been bandied about.)
The prevailing wisdom is that frustrated AT&T iPhone users would immediately jump ship for Verizon or any other carrier that gets the iPhone here in the states — the only question is how many, and naturally enough, the number varies wildly depending on whom you ask.
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