According to Trefis, Verizon is following after the heels of AT&T.  After AT&T upped its activation fee from $18 to $36 for phone upgrades recently, Verizon now is following suite with a $30 fee for all phone upgrades beginning April 22.  Carriers are doing this for relief on phone subsidies.  With this coming into effect soon, and if you were thinking about upgrading your phone, now may potentially be the best time to upgrade to save a few bucks.

4G is cropping up everywhere.  Even NetZero started offering mobile broadband via 4G a couple of weeks ago.  Without going into service quality, how do the different providers fare in terms of bottom line pricing?  Get ready for a bird’s eye view on pricing with the most popular 4G providers.  We’ll be looking at both the cost of equipment (no contract) as well as service.  Read past the jump to find out everything you ever wanted to know about 4G pricing…

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2 hours into the first day of launch and Verizon has run out of its initial supply.  No numbers were disclosed but Verizon expects to sell 11 million units for 2011.  Verizon’s iPhone will be selling at retailers such as Apple stores, Best Buy, and some Wal-Marts on February 10 including 2,000 of its own stores.

Of course, with people jumping to Verizon, what will they do with that old AT&T iPhone?  Will people use it for a music player just like an iPod Touch?  Or will you sell it?  If a mass amount of people start selling, we could see the price of used iPhones drop significantly.  What will you be doing with your iPhone should you make the Verizon switch?

Getting ready for work today, I’m very amused by this comic found on p. 6 of the January 24, 2011 edition of ComputerWorld.  Talking with some co-workers, many are ready to jump ship from AT&T.  Verizon, which has an excellent network should be ready for the influx of traffic.   Learning from all of AT&T’s mistakes should and deploying later should help for a very successful launch.    Verizon launches its iPhone on February 10 with preorders for existing Verizon customers starting on February 3.  But if you are planning to make that switch so you can get a rate of $30 a month for unlimited data, you better do it soon as according to NetworkWorld:

Verizon’s McAdam said that the $30 unlimited data plan for the iPhone 4 would be a temporary offer, and that the company would, like its rival AT&T, shift to a more granular tiered pricing model soon.

"This is part of the play by Verizon to get customers to move to the iPhone quickly, and to give AT&T customers a reason to jump ship," Gold said. "It’s not a bad move."

Many believe that Verizon will raise the price of the unlimited data plan to $120 a month.  Current Verizon rates are $15/month for 150MB and $30 for unlimited data with voice plans of $40 for 450 minutes and $69.99 for unlimited minutes.  Couple an iPhone with a service like Line2 for $10 a month or some other VoIP alternative and TextFree for unlimited texts and you have a potential winner – (Line2 I have not tried with a cellular network only my local WiFi but the results are mixed).  So for a potential $80 a month with a VoIP solution or $100 a month for unlimited data and voice (and with TextFree add unlimited texts)!  This deal seems perfect for the IT professional especially with the mobile hotspot where you can get internet linked out (hopefully without further charges from Verizon for tethering but extremely unlikely as they charge for Droid tethering at an extreme rate) to a machine when a client location doesn’t have internet yet.

I’m seriously considering getting an iPhone.  Right now I’m relying on my iPod Touch for everything such as banking deposits, VoIP, credit card processing, texting, Google Maps (load maps first and then leave WiFi area),  contacts, and scheduling.  With Verizon’s deal, I may just be enticed enough to switch carriers and go with an actual iPhone rather than my iPod Touch 4g.

Verizon Wireless is about to put a dent in AT&T ‘s profits.  AT&T is no longer the sole network provider for the iPhone.  Beginning February 3, 2011 some of Verizon’s customers can begin pre-ordering.  With the official launch date being available on February 10, the new iPhones will sell for $199.99 for a 16GB model while the 32GB model will go for $299.99 (both models at this price is with a 2 year agreement).  Getting stuff later gives Verizon a larger edge – seeing all the mistakes of AT&T and properly setting up their network for a potential doubling of their customer base.  The Verizon models of the iPhone will also have the ability to setup a personal hotspot allowing it to be a mobile router for up to 5 additional devices.  All in all, great things for Apple.  They make the iPhone and provide it to both carriers…so even though it’s a battle of the carriers, either way, Apple will profit.  For us consumers, it will mean more choice and better service with this new healthy competition.