Yes, you can finally make calls on it.
That’s the word millions of Americans have been waiting to hear since Apple Inc. and Verizon Wireless announced that the iPhone 4 was at last coming to the Verizon network. Would it provide a better experience than the version that runs on AT&T Inc.’s rival system?
My early conclusion is, it does. I’ve been using the Verizon iPhone, available today for pre-order and in stores on Feb. 10, for about a week in various locales in Northern California, and it has yet to drop or fail to connect a call. That’s a sharp contrast with my AT&T iPhone, which continues to lose calls regularly.
You have to feel a little sorry for AT&T. When it won exclusive rights to the first iPhone in 2007, there was no way to know how popular it would prove to be — or how much stress all those bandwidth-munching users would put on its network.
Still, deciding between Verizon and AT&T isn’t a slam-dunk, and current AT&T users who are able to switch shouldn’t automatically do so. The AT&T version is superior in some important respects, and you may have better service where you are than I do where I am. It does mean, though, that current and potential iPhone users in the U.S. finally have a choice. And that’s a very good thing.
The new iPhone is just that: a new iPhone. AT&T and Verizon use different technologies, and a phone that runs on one company’s network can’t run on the other’s. Still, the two handsets have the same dimensions, display and user interface, and the physical differences are minimal. The Verizon version has no SIM-card slot, the black bands in the metal rim that serve as the antenna are in different places and the mute switch is slightly lower — meaning that some existing cases may not fit right.
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