Verizon’s forthcoming marketing of Apple’s iPhone 4 has unleashed the dogs of war, with AT&T throwing the first salvo. AT&T is hoping to squelch at least part of the projected 24 percent customer loss when Verizon jumps into the iPhone provider business on February 10, 2011.

AT&T is losing its unique position as the sole provider of the iPhone which it has held since June 2007. AT&T was quick on the draw, with a comment from Larry Solomon, of AT&T’s public relations office, loudly declaring that he wasn’t sure if iPhone subscribers were prepared for or willing to accept slower connection and data transfer after enjoying AT&T’s 4G speed.

Verizon has waved the insider sale flag to its existing customers, offering early procurement from the limited reserves of iPhone 4 models before the general public can sign up for the smartphone service – and current AT&T customers can switch.

What service perk package is Verizon offering to tempt AT&T customers? Would the switch be worthwhile? How is AT&T countering in this service war in “gadget-dom”?

Preliminary iPhone 4 Service Comparison

So far, Verizon is offering cell phone number portability, so long as the prior plan with a competitor remains active, stating that wireless-to-wireless number transfer should take no longer than three hours. Land line number transfer to wireless is more complicated and can take as long as 4 days, perhaps longer.

Beyond that, Verizon hasn’t released too many—read: no—details regarding new customer promotions they’ve planned, which is understandable. Their service plan options haven’t changed beyond data transfer restrictions, something that many cell providers are noting due to the high bandwidth used.

Verizon does give a fairly comprehensive iPhone preparation guide, which will help both current and new Verizon customers as they buy the new service, and they offer a trade-in program that enables recycling the old phone and credit toward services—not a bad deal for either the customer or the planet.

Both Verizon and AT&T offer data plans and warn customers, as does T-Mobile and others providers, that data streaming might be more easily done on a PC or laptop. They both offer top plans around 200 MB per month, surfing, social networking, and other sundry additions.

AT&T and Verizon both offer upgrade plans, but few details are available if you’re not a customer already.

AT&T has the upper hand in applications available for download, although Verizon does expect to have a full catalog available soon. Whether they can complete the inventory before the full release date is one aspect to watch as the February 11th date draws nearer.

Summary

AT&T’s marketing tag line for the iPhone 4 notes that it changes everything again. It does, indeed. For Verizon, the two-word tag line sums it up nicely. “It begins.” And both are certainly correct. Whether a new customer chooses the new iPhone player of Verizon or goes with the veteran AT&T may well boil down to whether the user can actually tell the difference between 3G with Verizon or 4G with AT&T. Buyer beware, though: those are maximums—not usual or average speeds. Will it make a difference? To some who play against the Joneses, perhaps. To others, probably not.

About the Author

JC Ryan is a freelance writer for MyCollegesandCareers.com. My Colleges and Careers helps people determine if an online education is right for them and understand which online colleges and online courses they can choose from to reach their goals.