IPhone to come to Verizon and Sprint?

News reports have surfaced regarding potential plans to make Apple, Inc.'s IPhone device available to CDMA carriers Verizon and Sprint. These reports provide clues into what might be the beginning of the end for AT&T's strangle hold on the trendy smart phone and give millions of people outside of the current availability map hope to be as geeky as their resident computer tech.

Long seen as an innovator in the personal electronics space, Apple has won praise and numerous design awards for its crafting and refinement of small devices such as music players, home theater devices, wireless access devices and desktop computers. The company's hub application, ITunes was a central focus in the development of the IPod music device by hosting music and later video and tv programming. Apple created an instant competitor to Napster and other peer shared sites that seemed to make consumers and copyright holders happy. This application continues to be the central hub for what has been termed the digital lifestyle and Apple used it as a central docking station for its new device.

The IPhone, currently in its third iteration, has amassed millions of tech geeks and artsy lovers of all things Apple. The nature of the exclusive arrangement between Apple and carrier AT&T led to near instantaneous release of software programs to free the device from to be used on other GSM service providers. Called "jailbreaking," the application gets under the hood of the devices operating system to allow the device to activated without going through ITunes. Jailbreaking a phone brings a loss of some services such as operating system upgrades and some accounting capabilities that AT&T partnered with Apple to provide the customer.

Commercials for AT&T talk about the relative speed increase it  enjoys over Verizon. Although CDMA has the capability to be faster in data transfer, tests on both networks in seven cities here in the U.S. did indicate the the average speed of AT&T's GSM network is moderately faster than Verizon's CDMA based network.

On a side note, the technology behind CDMA was first developed before WWII by actress and inventor Hedy Lamarr. The concept, called spread spectrum technology was a complex system to break up and reassemble code signals for naval torpedoes to ensure they could not be manipulated by the enemy. After the technology was declassified, Qualcomm eventually patented the technology for use in wireless home and cellular communications.

There has been much speculation as to the impact opening the IPhone up to other carriers will have for the device and AT&T. Some estimates put AT&T's subscriber loss in the 2-3 million range as customers shop plans based on more competitive costs and coverage areas. While both technologies fair pretty well in the major metropolitan areas and along major highways, rural areas seem to be better covered by Verizon. Although AT&T service is not available in his area, GSM cellular provider Viaero provides roaming access current IPhones as people travel. Several residents in Cheyenne County have the device, though AT&T does monitor for excessive roaming and will deactivate accounts they deem to lose money with. One reason they don't do that often is the phone requires a relatively expensive plan that costs nearly one hundred dollars per month for unlimited text, email and web access with 450 minutes of talk time.

Opening up the device to competing carriers could cause prices for advanced services such as email, web and other data access to drop as carriers find a new balance for retaining customers and maintaining profits at acceptable levels. Although AT&T and Verizon are the two largest cellular carriers in the United States, other regional carriers such as GSM-based Viaero may also benefit.

One of the issues with CDMA phone technology is that specific models of phones are tied to particular service providers. GSM technology makes use of a special card that identifies the device on the network and either switching the card between phones or taking the phone to a different GSM provider is all that is required to make the phone operated on their network. The IPhone is a special case and advanced services such as software updates and sync technologies must still be done through the ITunes application. GSM providers such as Viaero and T-Mobile would have to implement technologies to handle visual voice mail in order to be compliant with the current devices, but those obstacles are relatively easy to surmount.

Apple fanatics have long clamored for additional choices other than AT&T to get their fix for what is arguably the best small electronic device sold in the United States today. By opening up the channel to the dominant cellular technology, Apple hopes to capitalize on the solid brand it has developed in the portable phone space and introduce millions more to the geekiness that is Apple.