Verizon CEO: iPhone Not Coming Any Time Soon

Today, Verizon CEO, Ivan Seidenberg, announced that the iPhone will not be coming to Verizon until it’s 4G (fourth-generation) cellular network is 100% up and running.

Thursday, Seidenberg said he hopes Apple will offer the phone on the carrier’s 4G, or LTE network, which it is just starting to roll out later this year in a few dozen cities, and will not be completely ready until 2012, the same year Apple’s and AT&T’s exclusivity contract  expires.

Seidneberg announced,

We don’t feel like we have an iPhone deficit. We would love to carry it when we get there, but we have to earn it.

I think 4G will accelerate the process, and any other decisions Apple makes would be fine with us. Hopefully, at some point Apple will get with the program.

However, as we posted September 22, analysts have claimed that Apple’s overseas manufacturers will begin building CDMA iPhones for Verizon Wireless this December. CDMA is the cellular technology both Verizon and Sprint currently use, while AT&T uses SIM cards. If these reports are true, it is said that Apple will have at leas 3 million CDMA iPhones by January 1, 2011.

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