According to BusinessWeek, Verizon Wireless Chief Technology Officer, Anthony Melone, said that in the event that AT&T's exclusivity deal is broken, Verizon is ready for the iPhone. Melone confirms that Verizon has been beefing up its network to prepare for the possibility of adding the world's most popular smartphone to their lineup. "We have put things in place already... We are prepared to support that traffic." Melone feels that Verizon's network and equipment would do a much better job of handling the heavy traffic load produced by the iPhone, stating, "Absolutely, I think we could handle it."
Verizon has consistently poured money into improving their network across the US. They have invested nearly $19 billion over the past three years, in addition to acquiring Alltel, which gave them more coverage in states such as California, Nevada, and Arizona. Apparently, Verizon also has a troubleshooting program team that helps identify weak spots in their network, in order to bring those areas up to par. "Verizon operates 100 vehicles in which technicians literally drive on roads throughout the country testing the service of their own devices as well as devices of their rivals. That's up from 10 vehicles a decade ago. If techies find an area that has weak service, the company can target more investment to improve the quality of the phone call or the data download."
Without saying that Verizon is for sure getting the iPhone, Malone made it very clear that he expects them to. With the vast majority of analysts believing that AT&T's exclusivity deal is coming to an end, Verizon's network may finally get a chance to feel the true wrath of iPhone users.
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