The New Verizon Offering

Apple iPhone - The New Verizon Offering

Does anyone know if the iPhone being offered by Verizon exactly and precisely identical to the iPhone sold in the Apple Stores. Can an iPhone bought in an Apple Store be usable with Verizon. In the ads I have been hearing the hype comes across as Verizon version of iPhone, so I would be worried about full Apple version functionality. Apple designs all the internals of their devices to work together without separate drivers and the like. So before I leap I want to look carefully. Thanks for any help.

iPhone Verizon
Apple is releasing a NEW iPhone that will work on Verizon 2/10/10 - it will not be in stores until then.

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But it is still the iPhone4, not an iPhone5 so don't anybody get excited about *that*.

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Let's clarify for him.
Some basics.
Verizon uses CDMA technology.
AT&T uses GSM technology.
So your AT&T phone cannot work on Verizon.

The new Verizon phone is basically the same phone as the AT&T iPhone 4 but modified to work on CDMA and a few very minor tweaks...

Otherwise they look identical.

Hope this helps. So Apple Store will sell two versions (one for AT&T, and the other for Verizon)

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What is it exactly that you want the iPhone to do that would a deal breaker for you?

From what I've read it is the same as the AT&T iPhone except it is CDMA instead of GSM and it can work as a hot spot because of iOD 4.2.5.

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The hot spot ability is what would be nice for me

If is an additional dollar amount, then an airfare or some other prepaid device is that same for me

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I just got curious, the CDMA you all talk about, it used to be an old technology here in Brazil which I remember about 8 or more years ago.

GSM seems to be a world wide standard and CDMA as proprietary technology.

All operators here are GSM for many years which they say is more advanced I guess because it uses the sim card, among other things, where you can change from a phone to another quickly, as CDMA the phone itself must be taken to a operator store to be activated/deactivated...and GSM uses less battery as they say

So migrating to CDMA operator would be a step back on this case?

A CDMA phone is different from a GSM phone...You cannot have both on the same device.

Correct me if I´m wrong.

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Many in the US agree with you....

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Not completely true. GSM is not more advanced, it merely has a different feature set. One of which is the ability to swap devices as easily as it is to move a chipcard from one to another. On the other hand, I've personally experienced CDMA phones able to make, receive and hold onto calls in signal situations that a GSM phone would laugh at you for trying.

And you do not have to take a CDMA phone into the carrier to be programmed. You can do that yourself. It's just that CDMA phones are not as carrier-switchable as GSM phones are. So while it should be almost always possible to swap between, say, AT&T and T-Mobile in the US by swapping SIM cards, phones for Verizon or Sprint probably cannot be moved to the other carrier.

In any event, both are essentially going away, to be replaced by variations of LTE.

> So migrating to CDMA operator would be a step back on this case?

Only if you need or want features that GSM has that CDMA doesn't, like the easier swappability or simultaneous data/voice. Neither one of those excite me.

> A CDMA phone is different from a GSM phone...You cannot have both on the same device. Correct me if I´m wrong.

You're right in that they are different. However, you're also wrong, you can have both in the same device. At least a third of Verizon's phones are "World Phones" with both CDMA and GSM radios. The GSM radios come with a pre-packaged SIM from Verizon Wireless' European co-owner Vodaphone. You can only USE one or the other at one time.

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CDMA came in 90s whereas GSM came in 80s.
CDMA is more of data oriented whereas GSM is voice oriented.
In new versions, it is possible to have SIM like card for CDMA and it is very popular in China.

In CDMA, there is battery / power management algorithm both in handsets as well as Base transreceiver station.

In case of disaster or high overload, CDMA is easier to add a BTS whereas in case of GSM, it take some time to do frequency planning and BTS tuning.

On highways? if you are travelling faster than 70 kmph, GSM call will fail at the boundary of the cell despite best network.

As a network designer of both GSM and CDMA, I can only say that both are good in their own way (like a mother of two kids would say) depending on your requirements.

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What is BTS?

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Base Transreceiver Station.

It is the electronic part of those towers and masts which you see.

A tower in GSM can have upto 3 BTSes if the service provider has been allotted once set of frequencies.

Thus it has 3 cells from which we get the word "cellular phones" or "cell phones" which is more accurate than "mobile phones".

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That's why I have so many dropped calls driving to work and at the same spots every day. Driving on a highway at fast speeds.

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So is that when the solution to prevent too many connections dropping they 'throttle back' the network drivers?

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That is bull. I've driven all over Dallas, Houston, and LA at speeds between 50 and 70 MILES (not km) per hour and very seldom had a call drop on a GSM network. Verizon was a completely different situation. My daughter was missing auditions and call times in LA, we HAD to dump Verizon, it was costing her acting jobs. Most of her peers / competitors in the business have AT&T or T-Mobile for the same reason, call drops and holes in coverage by Verizon and Sprint CDMA networks. When calls absolutely, positively have to go through and not drop, GSM seems to be more robust.

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Since as I understand radio travels at close to the speed of light the speed of a moving car (70 mph or 70 kph or 700kph) would be of irrelevant.

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I think the original poster was referring to the handoff between cells, which involves some software in the phone and the two BTS's involved. There may have been problems at one time, but increased processing speed on both ends have probably eliminated the problem. I've never had a problem, and I've been on a lot of freeways at high speed. If GSM dropped calls under those conditions, it would be useless as a cell standard. Nobody would want T-Mobile or AT&T. I had more dropped calls on the freeway with CDMA - it was REALLY annoying. I was trying to buy a car remotely (insurance settlement from a wreck). Admittedly I was in the worst canyon in the LA area at the time. But I drove the same canyon last year with GSM, my daughter was on her phone at the exact same place - not a problem at all. Zooming along 60 to 65 MPH both times, only difference was CDMA and GSM. If you told me CDMA had problems with handoffs at freeway speeds, I'd be more inclined to believe it based on my experience.

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The GSM has a frequency hand off between adjacent cells whereas in CDMA, all cells work at same frequency. If a call in progress does not get allocated a new frequency and the handset goes to next ( the third cell) the call gets dropped. Factors which come into picture are cell size and traffic in each of the three cells in which the handset is moving.

One does not get to know of it in either large cells which could be upto 5 kms in size or low traffic with less than 7 calls in progress at that instant.

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The theory behind the claim is probably related to handing off the call from one tower to another, not the relative speed of the vehicle vs speed of light.

There probably is a "speed limit" on how fast that happens and if you are going faster the call will drop. But it's almost certainly much faster than anyone can drive.

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The main reason for my post is that I consider the iPhone as a small hand held computer with telephonic features. So my concern is whether the Verizon version compromises, even slightly, any of the integrated computer function of the iPhone. The only reason I downplay AT&T is that they have no service along the upper reaches of the North Shore of Lake Superior. Not that Verizon's is all that great along the whole shore and practically no coverage over Sawbill Trail, Caribou Trail, and only two places on Gunflint Trail.

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Caribou Trail. Gunflint Trail. Just love names like that!