To a number of iPhone owners near the end of their contracts, that'd bring sighs of sweet, sweet relief. While no cell carrier is flawless, AT&T's service in regards to the iPhone seems to excel at its own special brand of FAIL.

According to a recent TechCrunch article, AT&T's visual voice mail service has been down for days for many users. Prompted by the article, I manually accessed my voice mail and retrieved a new message that my wife left for me early this morning. At 11pm EDT, there had as yet to be a notification.

Find any blog comments section on AT&T versus Verizon service and you'll note an overwhelming vote of confidence ratio for the latter carrier. The inverse holds true for the former. Of course, as there are no iPhone users on Verizon (legally), just how well the nation's number one wireless carrier handles the data load of millions of Mac geeks remains to be seen.

Verizon previously turned down Apple's initial offer of the iPhone, but with the iPhone's proven popularity would they make the same choice? While AT&T is pressing for an extension to its exclusivity contract when it expires in 2010 (having already received a year extension from the original deadline of 2009), anonymous sources claim Apple has been in talks with Verizon since at least early this year.

Could the immensely popular iPhone give Apple the upper hand in contract negotiations with Verizon? That remains to be seen, as the carrier hasn't exactly been struggling without Apple's devices in its mix, but with carrier competition on track to heat up, Verizon might just want to reconsider. And a more receptive Verizon this time around, might also prove a pliant partner.

Comments

This idea of 3G services defining a TELEPHONE companies abilities is absurd, and for those of you who are complaining because you can't get messages or dropped calls must be in tunnels or in mountain ranges where there is always going to be spots where the towers are not able to reach. Also, you complain that the telco's don't have enough service, yet when they shut things down to upgrade/update the services you complain even more, get a real life, get off the damn phone, remove it from your ear, and quit trying to drive with it there, and get out and do something productive like picking up the trash you threw out your window while driving down the road texting, or marching on Washington to get those gas guzzling, carbon monoxide, cancer producers off the road and replaced with zero-emission vehicles that can do as well as or better than the current models out there. Now if someone actually went after the automakers the way they did for cigarettes, or better still after the alcohol producers, then there would be a story worthy of reading about.

and you'll find REAL LIVE USERS who love they're iPhone, but hate AT&T.
Find any blog comment section and you'll find that many users would prefer Verizon over AT&T no matter what phone they have. I'm sure that it will be part of the contract with Verizon that they're software goes untouched. And that all features on the iPhone be included standard in the customers contract, as it is with AT&T. Apple isn't stupid, (although AT&T might be.) and Verizon knows what works and what does. Changing iPhone software, would fall under the "doesn't" catagory, and Verizon knows that.

So, that said, this is Kevin Duncan, saying, I love Verizon, and yes, I have a spine.

Verizon's system is CDMA, the current iPhone is GSM. I'm not a pundit of any sort, but why would Apple want to go from producing one type of iPhone that works around the globe to making one that works everywhere except with their U.S. carrier (plus 40 other countries. In europe, that means Ukraine since every other european country uses GSM exclusively) and one that works in the U.S. plus 40 of the same countries the GSM version works in? Unless Verizon has a GSM system that it hasn't told anyone about, I doubt Apple would be leaving AT&T any time soon.

...and you'll find an unscientific selection of spineless ninnies who'd rather vent anonymously on the Intarwebs than actually do something, who would die rather than give up their iPhone because it slides so easily into the pocket of their skinny hipster jeans. Where are all the people who are happy with their iPhones & AT&T service? That's right, they're not wailing and gnashing their teeth on message boards. TechCrunch is a big, steaming pile of anal fail most of the time. I'd sooner shoot myself than read what they have to say.

Verizon does generally have better coverage than AT&T...where they have coverage. And that's part of the problem. Every carrier has fairly big holes in their coverage, and weak governmental regulation of the carriers hasn't put enough pressure on them to patch those holes. Verizon's great on the East Coast, but AT&T's better across much of the South. T-Mobile is hit or miss, and Sprint coverage is awful here in DC.

Apparently, there are some dissatisfied Verizon customers as well.
I rather like Loup407's option, but I also rather like the idea of one day owning a unicorn, so I guess we're stuck with what we get.
Prior to my own iPhonage, I was a T-Mobile customer. For the record, I had far fewer dropped calls, different though not necessarily greater coverage areas, and fairly regular delayed voice mail delivery.
But of course, my razr didn't let me play Strategery, so there is that.
All said, the iPhone itself is such a beaut of a product, it's always going to shine and make the carrier look bad, I fear. It's the drop dead gorgeous model dating the troll with money.

I was a semi-happy Verizon user for several years. I switched to AT&T just to get an iPhone. Let's be clear: AT&T is in WAY over their heads and clearly has no adult in charge. However, verizon is far from perfect. I used a half dozen smartphones on Verizon's network; all had key features disabled by Verizon, and their user-interface model was clearly designed by someone who hates their customer. Their customer service is great; but the draconian and glacial approach to new technology leaves a great deal to be desired.
I'd happily pay a penalty to walk away from AT&T, and I suspect many others won't bother to wait until their contract expires. However, we will NOT find cellular nirvana with verizon, or with any other cell carrier.
They are all run by the spawn of Ma Bell and they all are operating with the same flawed business model.
The only (faint) hope is for Apple to bet the farm on buying a cell company (Sprint, maybe? They suck even more than AT&T and is losing customers in droves) and have Jobs and Co. run a cell business in an Apple-like manner. Will that be perfect? No, but it would suck way less than any cell business in the US today.

I have been a relatively happy ATT customer for many years now. My main dissatisfaction comes from the spotty and pretty slow 3g service ATT has. i have heard that Verizon is much better so i would definitely consider moving to Verizon if the opportunity presents itself.

I can't believe I'm cheering for this, as all my friends with Verizon are so hamstrung by draconian rules - can't transfer some things via bluetooth, no making your own ringtones etc. on their phones.However, AT&T is clearly a massive fail in the service department. The iPhone is the great tech gadget of our time but the reliability of the 3G network, the dropped calls, the oddball behavior of voice mail... I've only been with AT&T a month and I'm sick of it.I came off 4 years of T-Mobile service and honestly probably had about 3 dropped calls EVER. I get 3 dropped calls a DAY with AT&T. I'll pay any fee to get free of AT&T when another carrier supports the iPhone. In fact, I'd consider it an honor to break free from these foot dragging people at AT&T.