It could be prime time to buy that iPhone you’ve always wanted — from AT&T.
With Apple’s popular smartphone headed to Verizon Wireless early next month, analysts are expecting a mass exodus from AT&T, which has had exclusivity on the iPhone since its launch in June 2007.
Off-loading some of the data-intensive iPhone traffic to Verizon could ease congestion on AT&T’s much-criticized network.
“This could take the pressure off of AT&T mobility,” independent telecommunications analyst Jeff Kagan said Tuesday. “The iPhone experience could be much better very quickly for every customer on both networks.”
The iPhone was the first smartphone to feature a full-scale Web browser and access to thousands of applications and games that use the Internet.
As such, bandwidth-hogging iPhone users have slammed AT&T’s network, leading to widespread complaints about sluggish Internet service, dropped calls and delayed text messages.
IPhone-related revenue represents more than half of AT&T’s revenue, with more than 20 million iPhone users on the AT&T network and about 70 percent of them on multiple-account family plans, according to estimates by BTIG analyst Walter Piecyk.
“We believe that if the AT&T iPhone user decides to switch to Verizon, he will be taking his family plan members and their revenue with him,” Piecyk wrote in a research note.
He said the switch could be delayed for some users until later this year and into 2012 because AT&T experienced “much heavier than expected upgrade activity” with the iPhone 4 in late June.
Upgrading to a new version requires a two-year service commitment, which can be terminated early for a fee.
There are some differences between Verizon’s and AT&T’s iPhones. Verizon iPhone customers won’t be able to surf the Web or use Web-based apps while talking on the phone. AT&T’s network allows for simultaneous talk and data usage. Verizon’s iPhone, though, will have a mobile-hotspot feature that allows users to connect up to five devices to share the iPhone’s Internet connection. The fee for the service, which isn’t available from AT&T, wasn’t disclosed.
Andy Vuong: 303-954-1209, avuong@denverpost.com or
