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  Home Page » News » IPhone Arrival Hinges On Regulatory OK

iPhone arrival hinges on regulatory OK

Durango area could see smart phone next year

by Katie Burford
Herald Staff Writer The wait for the iPhone goes on.

AT&T, which has an exclusive agreement with Apple to provide service for its phone, announced in May it would begin offering service in the Durango area. But the move, which involves AT&T acquiring local assets formerly held by Alltel Corp., is awaiting regulatory approval.

"We are currently working to obtain those approvals and expect to close the transaction in the fourth quarter of 2009," said Brooke Burgess, an AT&T spokeswoman.

Alltel was purchased by Verizon Wireless earlier this year, but to satisfy regulatory conditions of the deal, Verizon was forced to sell off various service areas, including Southwest Colorado.

When the deal is complete, Alltel customers in La Plata and surrounding counties will move to AT&T, while Verizon customers will stay on Verizon.

In announcing the deal earlier this year, AT&T touted the network upgrades it is planning, including a 3G broadband network.

The changeover will begin after the deal is approved.

"We then expect a transition period of about 12 months after the transaction closes as we complete the integration work necessary to move the subscribers from the CDMA network to GSM," said Burgess, referring to two different mobile-phone technologies.

Eventually, most of AT&T's new service areas will be able to use devices such as the iPhone or Blackberry Bold and access the providers' Wi-Fi network by select smart phones and LaptopConnect cards at no extra cost.

"We are committed to communicating with subscribers on a timely basis during the network conversion process," Burgess said.

Rumors have circulated that Apple might end its exclusive arrangement with AT&T, possibly striking a deal that would make the device available to subscribers of Verizon, which claims a major share of the local cellular market.

Last week, Verizon Chief Executive Officer Ivan Seidenberg told analysts the decision was "exclusively in Apple's court." "We obviously would be interested at any point in the future they thought it would make sense for them to have us as a partner. And so we will leave it with them on that score," he was quoted saying on The Wall Street Journal's Digits blog.

But Apple watchers have been pessimistic that a deal is close because Verizon began running ads ahead of the launch of its new Droid phone that lampoons Apple.

"Everything iDon't ... Droid does," the ad ends.

Verizon has also taken aim at AT&T with ads that bash its rival's 3G coverage.

AT&T responded Tuesday with a lawsuit, saying it has "suffered and continues to suffer irreparable harm" as a result of the commercials, according to an Associated Press report.

kburford@durangoherald.com