Verizon to Support Simultaneous Voice and Data Transmission?

[Bill Paules]

Just don't know!!

I am not 100% sure that the iphone on Verizon will be all that much better.
I am pretty sure that any carrier with this much data on it will be bogged down. But I am pretty sure that my At&t iPhone will run better once the throngs of people jump ship to Verizon!!

 

[young92117]

Verizon will not get the Iphone till they get LTE next year. Apple will not make a CDMA iphone...but they might make a CDMA\GSM iphone hybrid.

Well, haven't you think about the possibility of iPhone comes with a chip that can suppoort CDMA/LTE or even CDMA/UMTS/LTE?

Chip is usually released way ahead of career rolling out the service.

 

[Wampahoofus]

Why is it important that voice and data be performed simultaneously? I have never come across a time in which I "needed" both.

Me either. Even though I'm 21, I don't see a point in being able to do so many things at once on your phone. JUST CALL SOMEONE. You don't need to be talking, texting, and surfing the web at the same time. I can't think of a point in my life where I can't wait 5 minutes to look up something online on a laptop/netbook/whatever.

Do we REALLY need to be able to do so much at once?

 

[Geckotek]

Thought that only applied to EDGE/GPRS? If you are on 3G, you can receive phone calls while surfing the net right?

Yes, you can. However, the data stream will be paused. For example, if you were downloading a file it would stop downloading and pick back up after your call ended. Or, if in a call, you can't pull up Google maps and do a search (since it requires an active data connection).

That's for GSM. No current Verizon 3G phones can do voice and data at the same time. Their current network setup isn't capable.

A bit misleading. See what I said above. The call will in fact come through.

Verizon costs way to much.
In my city, they aren't any better than AT&T. Just did carrier testing for work.
Verizon customer service, whom I have to call everyday for work, blows.
No SIM cards.

I'll stick with AT&T. Maybe jump to T-Mobile if they get an iPhone down the road. Which will probably be the same time, if not sooner than Verizon due to SIM cards.

I don't question your results, but I'm just curious about 2 things. First, how did you go about your carrier testing? Second, how often do you swap your SIM? I find that mine never leaves my iPhone...even though I have a second phone. I might switch to my second phone next time I go to the lake though.

 

[bella92108]

Verizon costs way to much.
In my city, they aren't any better than AT&T. Just did carrier testing for work.
Verizon customer service, whom I have to call everyday for work, blows.
No SIM cards.

I'll stick with AT&T. Maybe jump to T-Mobile if they get an iPhone down the road. Which will probably be the same time, if not sooner than Verizon due to SIM cards.

It's cool, they'll boycott AZ anyhow.

 

[bergmef]

I am not 100% sure that the iphone on Verizon will be all that much better.
I am pretty sure that any carrier with this much data on it will be bogged down. But I am pretty sure that my At&t iPhone will run better once the throngs of people jump ship to Verizon!!

You do understand ATT was number 3 behind Sprint and Verizon in the amount of data last year. My math skills aren't the best, but I think they already handle more data. Now if you said you were concerned about them handling the increased traffic that the iphone might bring, then that would be different. But to say others would be bogged down with that much data and 2 others already carry more isn't right.

 

[bella92108]

AT&T has always done well in rural coverage areas, but sucked in metro areas. Unfortunately for them, the high revenue customers are businesses and metro customers, which are the ones who will flee in droves to alternative carriers.

For all those that say "my coverage is great" it's funny. Statistically your coverage sucks, so if you say otherwise you're probably just not using the phone.

I for one, live in San Francisco, and have never lined up to buy an iPhone, but with the shi#@pile of a network ATT runs, I'll push, shove, and knock down to be the first one in line at launch day at the Verizon store if\when it happens.

It'll be funny when the board of directors at ATT see the mass exit from customers, and grill the executive team as to why they blew the golden opportunity they had.

 

[millertime021]

Wrong, my Blackberry has a SIM card. If Verizon gets the iPhone, I'm upgrading no matter what. But, I can wait...

You're BlackBerry has a SIM card for when you travel out side of the US. You either have the 8800, 9630 Tour, or the 9550 Storm. These are all "world phones" You don't use your SIM card in the states, I promise you that.

 

[millertime021]

I don't question your results, but I'm just curious about 2 things. First, how did you go about your carrier testing? Second, how often do you swap your SIM? I find that mine never leaves my iPhone...even though I have a second phone. I might switch to my second phone next time I go to the lake though.

Basically, we would travel around the Valley (Phoenix area) with two phones from AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, and Sprint. We would monitor the signal strength and make test calls, test data speeds, etc.

And for SIM cards, most personal users it doesn't matter. For my job we have to swap numbers with phones all the time. T-Mobile uses SIM cards, so we just swap the SIM; with Verizon, we have to call up customer service, tell them to port the number to the different device by telling them the ESN number, and this could take up to 48 hours. It's really a pain in the ass.

It's cool, they'll boycott AZ anyhow.

It's cool, I support the bill. Don't talk unless you actually live with illegals affecting your life personally.

 

[Geckotek]

One very simple example: you are driving, using your smartphone for GPS-enabled turn-by-turn instructions, and you have an incoming telephone call.

The call would come through, the GPS would continue to track, but the map wouldn't update. If the call were short it might be ok, but agreed, that would suck.

Verizon will not get the Iphone till they get LTE next year. Apple will not make a CDMA iphone...but they might make a CDMA\GSM iphone hybrid.

When Apple makes an LTE phone, of any sort, it will be a hybrid. LTE/GSM or LTE/CDMA. Either way, the phone won't be fully LTE until VoLTE is up and running.

It's called moving to GSM. Then they'll be like AT&T 3 years ago.

Are you implying Verizon would move to GSM? Are you on crack?

So AT&T has a huge network strain due to the iPhone. Once most people jump ship and go to Verizon their network will be trashed and AT&T's will be relieved of most of the stress. So my 3 Mbps 3G speeds will increase a bit and be more consistent.

Go read up on Verizon's network. They already handle more data than AT&T. Verizon and Sprint had their 3G networks long before AT&T so they had all of the data card business. This gave them all of the data experience they needed. They are much more prepared than AT&T was.

 

[Geckotek]

And for SIM cards, most personal users it doesn't matter. For my job we have to swap numbers with phones all the time. T-Mobile uses SIM cards, so we just swap the SIM; with Verizon, we have to call up customer service, tell them to port the number to the different device by telling them the ESN number, and this could take up to 48 hours. It's really a pain in the ass.

With Verizon, if you managed your business account online, you could do your ESN changes yourself using their website. Very simple. I used to manage 100+ lines this way. When I did have to call, the ESN change was within an hour. Oh...and Verizon's business customer service always kissed my but. Best CS I've had from any wireless carrier. But that was the business customer service. Doesn't necessarily reflect the CS for personal lines.

But can't argue with reception. If one carrier is better than another in your area...that seals the deal.

 

[millertime021]

With Verizon, if you managed your business account online, you could do your ESN changes yourself using their website. Very simple. I used to manage 100+ lines this way. When I did have to call, the ESN change was within an hour. Oh...and Verizon's business customer service always kissed my but. Best CS I've had from any wireless carrier. But that was the business customer service. Doesn't necessarily reflect the CS for personal lines.

But can't argue with reception. If one carrier is better than another in your area...that seals the deal.

That wasn't in the contract when it was set up a few years back, so when/if we renew with Verizon we may end up doing that as it would help a lot. Who knows.

And you'd think you could get some competent people when you have over a thousand lines with them...

 

[SAD*FACED*CLOWN]

It will not have to be CDMA compatible. In Canada, both Bell and Telus are CDMA networks. Last year they adjusted their networks for the iPhone. The iPhone is not a special Bell or Telus iPhone. My wife has both a Bell Blackberry, full CDMA and an iPhone which is also used on the Bell network.

I believe that if the iPhone were to come to VZW that it would be in a similar fashion.

I'm no expert on cellular tech but I think you are WRONG...ALL iPhones in North America are GSM and can only operate on GSM networks

 

[anjinha]

Me either. Even though I'm 21, I don't see a point in being able to do so many things at once on your phone. JUST CALL SOMEONE. You don't need to be talking, texting, and surfing the web at the same time. I can't think of a point in my life where I can't wait 5 minutes to look up something online on a laptop/netbook/whatever.

Do we REALLY need to be able to do so much at once?

Recently I was on hold with my cable company for 25 minutes. Because I can talk and browse at the same time with the iPhone I managed to keep myself entertained.

Another scenario: looking up directions while on the phone with someone.

 

[FnMikeK]

I'm no expert on cellular tech but I think you are WRONG...ALL iPhones in North America are GSM and can only operate on GSM networks

You are correct. Bell deployed a HSPA network just for the iPhone.

 

[Geckotek]

I suppose if you have live traffic updates, but I've ran Navigon on my iPhone just fine in the wilderness without EDGE/3G signal. Otherwise a GPS app has no need to use your data plan afaik.

Some apps don't store the map data locally...such as Google Maps.

Yeah...they have said that. Allowing the voice to run on the same data network would potentially cause many of the same issues that AT&T has faced. First CDMA iPhone, first used with VoR.A, with the first wave of people who sincerely believe that the experience will be night and day with Verizon (AKA people with HIGH expectations) could very well spell a PR disaster. I personally wonder if Verizon would be as reserved as AT&T about blaming the iPhone hardware (which is honestly partially to blame for some of the issues people have faced) since their entire brand is their network, and they stand to leave a lot of people completely dissillusioned if they fail.

I have to admit this has me curious and maybe even skeptical.

I personally think it would be good for competition, but I still believe Apple will continue on with AT&T as their premiere carrier. I also am curious to see how this HSPA+ rollout goes on AT&T...Verizon's 3G is still capped somewhere around 2mbps if I am remembering correctly, and this does not mention that changing...if anything it will just slow down with no increased bandwidth, and added strain of simultanous voice/data on their data network.

Good luck Big Red...you are going to need it.

The cap is 5GB. I don't think they need luck. They have years of experience behind them re: wireless data. They have the money and the engineers to pull it off. AT&T has the money but was too reluctant to put the necessary investment into their systems until they found themselves with too much bad press.

Any weaknesses in the VzW EVDO network will be exposed very quickly indeed if they support this.

A big difference between EVDO and CDMA1X is that in CDMA1X, voice calls typically are supported by multiple towers. This way, if one "leg" drops, there are more left to keep the call up and running. It's like wearing a belt AND suspenders AND really tight pants.

Not so in EVDO, it's much more dependent on one path remaining up.

Since EVDO has been data only, you don't really notice a call drop. Sure, maybe a web page loads a little slower or there's a hiccup in your streaming video, but not a big deal overall. With voice, you'll notice.

In addition, people tend to be less mobile when using data, but people can be heading down the highway at 70 MPH while talking.

This is an interesting move if true. It would bypass the need to upgrade the network side with CDMA 1X Advanced gear.

Good point, will be interesting to see how they handle this.

So they already handle more, but think about how many people are going to go to Verizon when/if they get an iPhone. That will add a lot of strain. Whether or not their network will be able to handle it, I have no idea. But it will certainly be an extreme amount of data being transferred that wasn't there before.

The fact that they handle more means they have the experience.

It will not have to be CDMA compatible. In Canada, both Bell and Telus are CDMA networks. Last year they adjusted their networks for the iPhone. The iPhone is not a special Bell or Telus iPhone. My wife has both a Bell Blackberry, full CDMA and an iPhone which is also used on the Bell network.

I believe that if the iPhone were to come to VZW that it would be in a similar fashion.

IIRC, Bell and Telus switched to GSM. Verizon won't be doing that. If I'm correct about the FCC licensing they have, they couldn't even if they wanted to.

....it is critical to my business. I use the voice side to join conference calls and then I use Cisco's Webex App to view/share presentations over the internet at the same time. Everyone on the conference call can talk and view the PPT at the same time.

For personal use, it is extremely valuable to be able to surf and talk to someone who is asking a question.

Verizon's CDMA is just not that useful....it's old technology, it can not be upgraded as far as speed, and it is not employed in MOW.

Thats cool the way you use it.

BTW, CDMA is not old. GSM is older than CDMA. It amazes me how many people say this?!?

Yes, I've always said people should be careful what they ask for. Paying for calls by amount of data transceived (instead of by time) could suck. Who wants to pay more for a phone call in a noisy bar than one in a quiet room?

OTOH, starstruck lovers just sitting on the phone for hours listening to nothing, would get a great deal

LOL...reminds me of my teenage years!

I don't think it'll add that much in comparison to what goes on now. CR's study showed that iPhone users average less than 250MB (edit - MB) a month. Even if that's twice the normal smartphone amount as the report states, it's still tiny. There are a lot of Verizon users who've been Slinging TV for years, on top of all the corporate laptop users.



I've read that Verizon has recently deployed IMS for testing voice over LTE. And of course there's the news that Verizon says they'll have up to five LTE voice+data phones for sale within the year.

Side note: Verizon has said that their 1X voice network will stay up for the next decade. Dumb phones are still popular.

As for the supposed Voice over Rev A, I've commented before that I've used VoIP on a CDMA phone while streaming data, and it worked very well. The only time the incoming ring didn't appear instantly, was when I was playing a video at the same time. Some integration between 1X paging would solve that.

Good info!

Wrong, my Blackberry has a SIM card. If Verizon gets the iPhone, I'm upgrading no matter what. But, I can wait...

This isn't the same application the previous poster was referring to. Your SIM in your BB is for using on GSM networks. Not for swapping around phones on the CDMA network.

 

[Geckotek]

That wasn't in the contract when it was set up a few years back, so when/if we renew with Verizon we may end up doing that as it would help a lot. Who knows.

And you'd think you could get some competent people when you have over a thousand lines with them...

I don't think it needs to be in the contract. Get in touch w/ your rep. Web management should be available to all business customers. In fact, I regularly got e-mails suggesting I manage my account online.

With 1000+ lines, you SHOULD get great service. I know I did with exception of the rare billing argument...but they never wanna give up money.

Recently I was on hold with my cable company for 25 minutes. Because I can talk and browse at the same time with the iPhone I managed to keep myself entertained.

Another scenario: looking up directions while on the phone with someone.

I can entertain myself w/ games etc that don't need data.

True about the directions, I've done that a couple of times.

 

[bmwhd]

WRT Verizon and iPhone - I can provide neither a link nor any real proof. I can offer some additional anecdotal evidence - I know one of the execs responsible for Verizon's data network. He is mum on the subject as you'd expect. That's not to say he has provided no feedback to my questions.

This gentleman would know. That's beyond question. My interpretation of his non-verbal cues is that he does indeed know something very interesting on this subject. Time will tell.

 

[Geckotek]

WRT Verizon and iPhone - I can provide neither a link nor any real proof. I can offer some additional anecdotal evidence - I know one of the execs responsible for Verizon's data network. He is mum on the subject as you'd expect. That's not to say he has provided no feedback to my questions.

This gentleman would know. That's beyond question. My interpretation of his non-verbal cues is that he does indeed know something very interesting on this subject. Time will tell.

So you suspect that no answer is a positive answer? Otherwise he'd say no...correct?

If Verizon were to release an iPhone in the next year, I'm guessing somebody somewhere would already be testing the radio equipment.

 

[bmwhd]

So you suspect that no answer is a positive answer? Otherwise he'd say no...correct?

If Verizon were to release an iPhone in the next year, I'm guessing somebody somewhere would already be testing the radio equipment.

Yep and Yep. And he's the guy with the team that would do the testing.

 

[kdarling]

You don't even have to use Verizon's website to swap between their phones, although that's one way. Even easier is just dialing:

If you've set up a VZW login with a PIN, then you simply turn off the old phone, turn on the new one and dial the usual *228. It'll ask you what phone number you want to activate, then your PIN. A minute later, the phone is activated.

Super simple. Do it all the time switching between development phones.

The only trick is that you can't do that going between smartphone and dumbphone because a CSR has to manually turn on/off the data plan option. (You don't get charged for the time using the dumbphone.) Still wish they'd automate that part.

 

[Geckotek]

You don't even have to use Verizon's website to swap between their phones, although that's one way. Even easier is just dialing:

If you've set up a VZW login with a PIN, then you simply turn off the old phone, then turn on the new one and dial the usual *228. It'll ask you what number you want to activate, then your PIN. A minute later, the phone is activated.

Super simple. Do it all the time.

The only trick is that you can't do that going between smartphone and dumbphone because a CSR has to manually turn on/off the data plan option. (You don't get charged for the time using the dumbphone.) Still wish they'd automate that part.

Ooooh! That's new! Niiiice.

 

[CubusX]

Costs

Verizon and AT&T's prices are pretty much the same....

Why do people keep saying Verizon is more expensive?????

The iPhone users on AT&T are the numbnuts that are paying for 3G services ($30 a month) when it is almost not available.

 

[daseff]

Basically, we would travel around the Valley (Phoenix area) with two phones from AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, and Sprint. We would monitor the signal strength and make test calls, test data speeds, etc.

And for SIM cards, most personal users it doesn't matter. For my job we have to swap numbers with phones all the time. T-Mobile uses SIM cards, so we just swap the SIM; with Verizon, we have to call up customer service, tell them to port the number to the different device by telling them the ESN number, and this could take up to 48 hours. It's really a pain in the ass.

I had to register with this site JUST to say that that is a straight up lie. ESN changes can be done online at www.vzw.com or by dialing *228 on the phone you wish to activate. The process takes all but two minutes, if that, and would NEVER by any means take anywhere near 48 hours. Furthermore, you never even need to contact customer service or speak with a CSR at all, it's all done automatically and with recorded sayings, not a live human being. I change phones multiple times a month.

I now don't believe any of your so-called "results."



I also love how this site is all supposed Apple supporters, but they are whole heartedly against having Apple making MORE REVENUE by offering their devices on multiple carriers in the U.S. Ridiculous.

 

[kas23]

Recently I was on hold with my cable company for 25 minutes. Because I can talk and browse at the same time with the iPhone I managed to keep myself entertained.

Another scenario: looking up directions while on the phone with someone.

Hmm. I play games on my iPhone while talking to my wife.

I also love how this site is all supposed Apple supporters, but they are whole heartedly against having Apple making MORE REVENUE by offering their devices on multiple carriers in the U.S. Ridiculous.

I don't understand this either. However, what I really find puzzling are the all the people who say they know for a fact that the iPhone isn't coming to Verizon. Here's a hint it will: my upgrade date used to be in October 2010. AT&T has since changed this date to now. Probably because they want the first and best chance to suck me into another 2 year contract. If they weren't going to lose exclusivity, why change my upgrade date?