Looks like AT&T is going to be facing some trouble soon. It’s looking very likely that the event Verizon is holding on Tuesday morning in New York City is all about unveiling a CDMA iPhone that will work on the carrier’s network. For those of you who have suffered and struggled with AT&T’s network, you will finally be able to swap to another carrier. Looks like Apple and Verizon have teamed up not only for the phone but also have a quick little trick up their sleeve too. Not only does Verizon seem poised to unveil an iPhone but it seems like that they’ll do so with the option for unlimited data plans. This is something AT&T killed off last year by smartly disguising it as a better short-term deal for most customers. In reality, the data caps are actually a long term move the company made to help preserve their struggling network and more importantly bring in more profit.

Verizon isn’t ready to go in the same direction though just yet. Reuters recently cited an unnamed source that says that Verizon will offer the iPhone to its customers with their existing wireless service plans and today the Wall Street Journalfurther clarified that the Verizon iPhone will in fact offer an unlimited data plan, citing a “person with familiar with the matter.”  The folks over at AppleInsider have put up a nice breakdown of what this actually means. While the core talk-time and text plans are largely the same on the two networks (though AT&T has rollover minutes), AT&T does not offer unlimited data plans anymore unless you are grandfathered. Instead, their highest data plan is 2 gigabytes for $25 a month. After the 2 GB’s each additional gigabyte is $10 while Verizon will be offering unlimited data for a flat $30 fee. This is the same unlimited data plan that AT&T used to offer until they removed the option last June. The timing of the move was curious as it was right before the release of the exclusive AT&T iPhone 4 launch in the U.S. Not only did they eliminate the unlimited data plan feature, they also ended up getting millions of customers locked into the downgraded plans for at least two years. The company also managed to hike up their early termination fee to ensure that customers were likely to stay within the contract limits as well.

There’s also a bit more to it. Not only are the standard data plans better on Verizon, but so are the tethering plans. As of right now, AT&T gives you the option to tether your iPhone but it will cost you $45 a month )your $25 data plus an extra $20 to tether) and it counts against your same 2 GB cap. verizon offers tethering for $30 extra but they give you a 5GB data package to use exclusively for tethering with that money. In other words, it’s more expensive but a muchbetter deal because your AT&T 2 GB data cap will be eaten into quickly by your actual iPhone usage.

If all of this information turns out to be true, it looks like AT&T is bound to a rough road ahead. The larger network that is perceived to be superior is not only taking the crown jewel away but also leaving AT&T devastated. It looks that Verizon is confident that they’ll be able to handle the iPhone’s huge data traffic surge, whereas AT&T has already proven that it could not handle the huge traffic and had to adjust their plans accordingly. The big picture here is that AT&T is seeking to milk money out of their customers by claiming that their plans are $5 cheaper, which is true but they don’t offer as much bandwidth and as time goes on, more and more people are going to use up more bandwidth which means that AT&T will make more money on overage charges. Verizon on the other hand is showing that they are still a greedy carrier. While their data plans may look good right now, they have already said to have been looking into the idea of capping them as well. Don’t be surprised if this happens sooner rather than later.

Verizon is definitely seeming to become a strong contender just coming into the game as AT&T withers. What is your opinion of the whole ordeal? Let us  know in the comments below!

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[Sources: AppleInsider,Wall Street Journal]

Authors: TechHead

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