Happy New Year 2011

One thing I am happy about in 2011 is that AT&T will no longer be the sole network that supports the iPhone from Apple. I have been an iPhone user from the beginning and have always liked the phone. I have not been so happy with the AT&T service. To be fair, AT&T's strategy was to cover large population areas, therefore lots of people. Chief competitor Verizon chose to more fully cover the country, including smaller towns, which happens to be where I live.
So when Verizon finally made it official that the iPhone will be available in early February, they can count me as a new customer, happy to switch from AT&T. There actually happens to be a 3G Verizon tower in Shady Dale, my home town, only 2 miles from here. Judging from my tiny "bars" on my current iPhone, AT&T's tower is nowhere near as close... and it's certainly not 3G.
I also see in the news that AT&T and Verizon will set off another marketing war: AT&T will once again say they have "more bars in more places" (does anybody care?!?!?!?!) and Verizon will tout their new ability to support the iPhone. The news reports that both companies spend just under $2billion every year to snare customers in this lucrative market. Well, that's supporting the marketing and advertising industries, so I shouldn't complain. I just think that if AT&T had spent some of those billions on their network, you wouldn't be seeing the mad rush to Verizon that I intend to be at the front of.