Verizon and iPhone Revisited

Marco Arment: “Iâ€ ve been a Verizon Wireless customer since 2004: phones for the first 4 years, and data via tethering and EVDO modems for the entire time. I recently upgraded to a MiFi 2200 and renewed my data contract for another 2 years. Iâ€ ve traveled all over the east coast, mostly in New York, using Verizon voice and data services (data-only in the recent years), and I use their data service every day in Manhattan and the surrounding area.

Itâ€ s not that great. Among the problems Iâ€ ve had:”

Matt Drance: “Technical limitations notwithstanding, Verizon has a long history of forcing partners to remove or alter smartphone features, and add its own. Marco Arment talked about this just yesterday. The story appears to be improved in the Droid era, but itâ€ s still a likely point of contention in any Apple-Verizon negotiations: iPhone either works the same on Verizon as it does everywhere else, or not at all.”

Even though I believe Verizon will offer the iPhone some day, their network and business practices do have warts, just like AT&T.