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Verizon Reiterates Claims of World-Mode Next-Generation iPhone, Simultaneous With AT&T Debut

Thursday May 19, 2011 12:13 pm PDT by Eric Slivka

Reuters reports that Verizon Chief Financial Officer Fran Shammo today reiterated his earlier claim that the next-generation iPhone will in fact be a "world mode" device capable of running on both GSM and CDMA. Furthermore, Shammo noted that Verizon will be able to launch the iPhone simultaneously with the device's debut on rival AT&T.
While Verizon has sold fewer iPhones than some analysts expected, Shammo said he was happy with sales of the "six-month-old phone" that only works in some countries.

When the next iPhone model launches Verizon will be able to offer it at the same time as AT&T. Verizon's version will also work in as many countries as AT&T's iPhone, which has global coverage, Shammo said.
Shammo also addressed the topic of LTE 4G compatibility for the iPhone, calling it "a bigger issue for Apple" in seemingly hinting that the device will not support the technology, in line with recent reports pointing to a lack of LTE chipsets meeting Apple's design and power requirements.
Shammo said that even if the next iPhone does not support LTE, Verizon will have enough high-speed alternatives to sell.

"I think it's a bigger issue for Apple than it is for us," he said. "Depending on where Apple plays, that's where we'll sell."
Finally, Shammo confirmed that Verizon will drop unlimited data plans by this summer, moving instead to a tiered system used by AT&T and other carriers that charges customers more if they use greater amounts of data. Verizon hopes to offset this shift somewhat by introducing family plans for data, allowing multiple devices to share from a single pool of data allowance. Mobile phone companies have long offered family plans for voice minutes, and a shift to similar offerings for data could increase users' flexibility and reduce prices compared to current offerings where each device is required to have its own data plan.
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SilianRail
26 months ago
I can't think of anything more worthless than a 4G phone with a 200 MB data limit.
Rating: 12 Positives
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Biolizard
26 months ago

Scentless deodorant

Non sticky tape

feel free to add!


Zimbabwean dollars
Rating: 10 Positives
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Ashyukun
26 months ago
I had a hard time reading through that because I kept seeing 'ShamWow' instead of 'Shammo'... -_-;
Rating: 6 Positives
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Thunderhawks
26 months ago

I can't think of anything more worthless than a 4G phone with a 200 MB data limit.


Scentless deodorant

Non sticky tape

feel free to add!
Rating: 5 Positives
Avatar
bbplayer5
26 months ago

I had just read the article about Verizon dropping the unlimited plans and moving to more tiered plans with family plan options. I hope ATT and other carriers do this to. The small percentage of people opting for unlimited plans will moan and complain but seriously, those of us using much less data are gouged by requiring much larger data plans than needed over a data plan much too small. All that gouging of course subsidizes the price of the larger data plans. Of course it sounds great to advertise how cheap the larger plans are. You never see ATT for instance advertising how great their 200mb plan is.

The family plans will be great as well. I will pay for a larger plan if multiple devices will benefit.


You are COMPLETELY wrong. So wrong i wont even argue after this post. I switched to Verizon and got the Thunderbolt for LTE. On my iPhone 4 with AT&T I was around 800mb per month. With this thing the first month I went over 16 gig... last month 9 gig. Thats more data in a month than I did in an entire year on iPhone 4.

You cannot ever have a good LTE network and cap data at 2-5gb. You literally cant stay under it. Why give us that kind of speed and not be able to use it? Its called greed.
Rating: 3 Positives
Avatar
Born Again
26 months ago

Question, does anyone know what will happen to the people who bought the iPhone on Verizon with unlimited data?

Will we be able to keep these plans, or will we be forced to switch?


let me ask....

they said you can keep it.
Rating: 3 Positives
Avatar
mrkramer
26 months ago
This would be awesome, especially if Apple starts selling them with the SIM card slot unlocked. I'd love to be able to use Verizon when I'm in the US, and put in a prepaid SIM when I'm outside of the US.
Rating: 3 Positives
Avatar
HMFIC03
26 months ago
I knew this was going to happen, but I expected it in the iPad 2. Not doing so makes the logistics of manufacture, distribution and supply hard on everyone. c'mon there are 18 different models of iPad2 and 12 different iPhone 4's models now.
Rating: 3 Positives
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bbplayer5
26 months ago
Try our new LTE networks! Oh btw, you only get 2gbs of data that you will use in the first 2 days.


Thank you and come again!
Rating: 3 Positives
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kdarling
26 months ago

if the world phone is like other world phones Verizon sells the phones will be edge only on the GSM side but I do not see that being a big deal.


Actually, most/all of Verizon's World Phones have had UMTS-3G for a year or two now. Heck, HSPA as well.

The trouble with "world standard" GSM is that there are so many frequencies around the world to support, since various major countries allocated different ones. So I don't think Verizon's phone support most USA UMTS 3G freqs.

I can't speak for Verizon, but one of the tricks that Telecom used here is that even with a local SIM, the phones would always connect via CDMA if it was available. In other words, if you went to the US and put an AT&T SIM in, you'd still connect via Verizon or Sprint.


On most Verizon World Phones you can set them to be Automatic, CDMA only, or GSM only, with GPRS/UMTS selection.

In addition, Verizon will give you the unlock code for the GSM side, so you can use other SIMs. Some people have done that to use their Verizon World Phones on T-Mobile or AT&T, albeit without 3G.

In other words, Verizon's World Phone are a better deal than AT&T's totally locked up iPhone, since you can use VZW's network in the USA, and cheaper SIMs overseas.
Rating: 3 Positives

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