Verizon iPhone: Finally

Thank heavens for the imminent arrival of a CDMA version of the iPhone 4. Now we can get on to important things, like predicting the new features of the iPhone 5.

Although it will be nice to have an alternative to AT&T, I’m in no hurry to get in line at my neighborhood Verizon store. For one thing, I’ve noticed that since the move of eWEEK’s San Francisco offices, we may have lost our lovely views of South of Market (or the Baja Financial District, depending on which way you were looking), but we’ve gained better reception of AT&T’s network.

I understand that the CDMA iPhone won’t allow users to use data and voice at the same time, as one can do with the GSM/UMTS/HSDPA units that AT&T offers. That’s not a big deal to me; I’ve been using an iPhone for months, and I have yet to feel the need to access the Internet in the middle of a phone call.

But this inherent limitation of the CDMA iPhone 4 will affect its users that take advantage of its 3G personal hotspot feature, which allows up to five Wi-Fi devices to connect via tethering. That hotspot feature will of course be useless when you’re trying to use the phone as a phone, but I guess I’m supposed to be all lit up about any ability to tether. If I were more of a road warrior, I might be looking forward to this. Instead, I’m wondering how hard it’s going to be to get a signal at the next trade show I go to.