Verizon to Require 4G LTE Compatibility for 'All' Future Smartphones

[Geekbabe]

I'm a really happy Verizon customer, the 4G LTE speeds are awesome & I've found their network to be robust when I'm traveling.

As to phones, I don't care that the Verizon logo is on my phone, I care that the device works & does so reliably. I'd love an iphone but in addition to the 4G issue, I have old eyes and find the device too small to do a lot of work on.

 

[kdarling]

I'm not sure about the UK, but in the USA, Apple seems to be the one determining the price of their phones with the exceptions of a few, very rare, short-term promotions in which the retailers (ex. Radio Shack) typically eat the discount.

Amazon and others also often charge less than normal. But I take it you mean the subsidized prices?

The phones are the same price no matter which carrier I choose. That's no coincidence. That's clout.

There are a lot of phones that come out with generic prices such as $49, $99, $149, $199 and so forth.

If Apple did dictate selling prices, such price fixing would be illegal in many states, and is still dimly viewed by the anti-trust Feds.

 

[kdarling]

Hi guys
does this mean there won't be 3G network anymore in Varizon ? in the future.

LTE means that one day, nobody will have 3G. The question is, how soon?

Verizon originally said that they'd keep EVDO (3G) around at least until the end of this decade.

At the same time, they've predicted that their entire 3G footprint will have LTE support by the end of 2013. They could drop 3G anytime a few years after that.

What will keep it around longer than we'd think, is the fact that both CDMA and GSM 3G is used by a lot of legacy devices around the country: everything from ATM machines to remote scientific monitors.