Verizon iPhone to be announced on Tuesday

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Verizon will announce the iPhone on its network on Tuesday, January 11th.

The wait is finally over for thousands of frustrated AT&T customers who have experienced dropped calls and poor signals stemming from the overburdened and underinvested AT&T network.

According to the report a person familiar with the matter has said that while Apple believes its exclusive relationship with AT&T has been successful, it believes that by opening the iPhone to a second carrier the company will be able to grow sales faster in the U.S.

This will mark the first time U.S. cellular consumers have been able to choose the network that carries their iPhone. While pricing for the Verizon phone is still unknown, it’s clear that with two vendors selling the phone, competition will be fierce. AT&T will likely be handling a surge in cancellations while Verizon needs to assure customers that their network can handle the load which crippled AT&T.

Analysts predict that AT&T will lose between one and three million new subscribers because of the Verizon deal. Toni Sacconaghi, an analyst at Sanford Bernstein, has been quoted by the Wall Street Journal estimating that Verizon may add up to 10 million iPhone customers. This would be a significant boost to the company’s 93 million users.

The Verizon iPhone will take advantage of the carrier’s CDMA technology. It is unclear when the phone will hit stores

As for smaller carriers such as Sprint and T-Mobile, this announcement may impact them more greatly. The fear is that Verizon will gain the lions share of customers over the next year, not leaving much for Sprint and T-Mobile.

What do you think about the iPhone coming to Verizon? Would you switch carriers or stick with AT&T? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.