Verizon Gets the iPhone: So Who's Next?

With AT&T's iPhone exclusive broken, the floodgates should be open for the iPhone to appear on more US carriers. Verizon Wireless announced its iPhone yesterday. So how about everybody else?

Cricket would love an iPhone, executives told us back in October.

MetroPCS wants the iPhone, but only if it costs less. MetroPCS doesn't subsidize its phones, and an unsubsidized $600 device is just too costly, MetroPCS exec Ed Chao told us.

Sprint seems totally uninterested in carrying the iPhone. A Sprint spokeswoman had no comment, except to tell me how wonderful the carrier's lineup of 4G WiMax, Android-powered smartphones was.

T-Mobile told the Seattle Times that it would like to carry the iPhone. But that's been the carrier's stance for a long time. Way back in 2006, then-CEO Robert Dotson praised Apple in such a way as to make us think that T-Mobile, not the then-Cingular, would get the iPhone first. We all know how that worked out.

US Cellular said it hopes to have the iPhone someday, but that its current lineup of Android, Windows, and BlackBerry phones is "strong."

About Our Expert

Sascha Segan

Former Lead Analyst, Mobile

My Experience

I'm that 5G guy. I've actually been here for every "G." I reviewed well over a thousand products during 18 years working full-time at PCMag.com, including every generation of the iPhone and the Samsung Galaxy S. I also wrote a weekly newsletter, Fully Mobilized, where I obsessed about phones and networks.

My Areas of Expertise

US and Canadian mobile networks
Mobile phones released in the US
iPads, Android tablets, and ebook readers
Mobile hotspots
Big data features such as Fastest Mobile Networks and Best Work-From-Home Cities

The Technology I Use

Being cross-platform is critical for someone in my position. In the US, the mobile world is split pretty cleanly between iOS and Android. So I think it's really important to have Apple, Android and Windows devices all in my daily orbit.

I use a Lenovo ThinkPad Carbon X1 for work and a 2021 Apple MacBook Pro for personal use. My current phone is a Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra, although I'm probably going to move to an Android foldable. Most of my writing is either in Microsoft OneNote or a free notepad app called Notepad++. Number crunching, which I do often for those big data stories, is via Microsoft Excel, DataGrip for MySQL, and Tableau.

In terms of apps and cloud services, I use both Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive heavily, although I also have iCloud because of the three Macs and three iPads in our house. I subscribe to way too many streaming services.

My primary tablet is a 12.9-inch, 2020-model Apple iPad Pro. When I want to read a book, I've got a 2018-model flat-front Amazon Kindle Paperwhite. My home smart speakers run Google Home, and I watch a TCL Roku TV. And Verizon Fios keeps me connected at home.

My first computer was an Atari 800 and my first cell phone was a Qualcomm Thin Phone. I still have very fond feelings about both of them.

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