Even Without iPhone, Verizon Is Gaining on AT&T [telecom]

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Even Without iPhone, Verizon Is Gaining on AT&T

By BRAD STONE and JENNA WORTHAM July 14, 2010

It is a question that the nation's early adopters keep hearing from friends: when is the iPhone coming to Verizon?

The combination of the biggest cellphone carrier in the United States and Apple's smash-hit phone would certainly be a powerful one. And it would be a major challenge to AT&T, which has been the exclusive carrier for the phone since its debut in 2007.

But Verizon could decide that it does not actually need the iPhone, thanks to its deepening ties with Google.

In big cities, AT&T's network has buckled under the data-heavy demands of the iPhone, frustrating customers. Verizon has managed to avoid similar problems while working with Google, Apple's latest nemesis, to offer several strong rivals to the iPhone that use the Android operating system from Google.

On Thursday, Verizon will begin selling the Droid X, an Android phone that many say may be the fiercest challenge yet to the iPhone, Steven P. Jobs's crowning creation.

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