Looking Forward To Testing An iPhone On Verizon’s Network
So over the weekend it’s been settled that the spouse gets the Verizon iPhone (sorry, Android). Meanwhile, I’m still within a new two-year AT&T contract and not willing to pay the termination fee to switch. Plus, despite my long-harbored annoyance at AT&T’s network, don’t make all that many phone calls. So I’m sticking with AT&T for the forseeable future.
But having two iPhones on different carriers will settle a long-burning question: is the iPhone 4’s crappy reception due to the phone, or the network? I’ve always blamed the network, but with the iPhone only available on AT&T, there was no way to really know.
Well, in a few weeks personal testing will be possible. And square one is going to be home, where I’ve long had basically no AT&T reception. Which sucks. Meanwhile, the spouse’s cheapo, non-smart cellphones on both Verizon and T-Mobile have worked fine (leaving me to play Doodle Jump or borrow her phone). So I predict the Verizon iPhone will make calls just fine.
Then there will be all the times we’re out and about together, resulting in more field testing — I have a long list of dead areas across the Bay Area that will duly be checked out with the Verizon iPhone. Side by side, we’ll soon answer the question, “Can you hear me now?”
And who knows? If the iPhone performs noticeably better on Verizon — that may even be enough justification to swallow that cancellation fee by the time iPhone 5 arrives. I’m not going that far just yet, but we’ll see.
I have an HTC with the Android system. I’m getting used to it and am excited about the opportunities that might present themselves as more Android tablets hit the market (it will really help with my business). Any chance this move by Apple will slow what seems like Google’s steady march to dominance in wireless? This may sound presumptuous on my part, but this all seems eerily familiar to the situation in the early 80’s when I was a kid and Apple was here one day, gone the next…replaced by PC.
Thanks for the great posts!
–Joe
I personally think a large part of Android’s rise has been due to the iPhone only being available on AT&T, and not just Android’s technology (despite what a lot of the techno pundits would like to believe). We’ll soon see now that the iPhone is available on Verizon.