Verizon prepares for iPhone? Don't believe the headlines

You've got to love the headline on the Business Week piece that went live last night: "Verizon Wireless Prepares for the iPhone." Talk about enticing readers to click.

Unfortunately, the piece is not what you expect. The companies haven't cut a deal that has Verizon working overtime to prepare for the device's arrival. Likewise, Verizon's CTO - who who talked to Business Week for this story - didn't even suggest that a deal is coming.

Plain and simple, he said that the network is ready for the amount of traffic that iPhone users might put on a network. That's a nice little jab at AT&T, which clearly was not ready for the demands and has taken a public relations beating because of it.

Right about now, I could go into some rant about how the iPhone is great device and that the shoddy service from AT&T has held it back. I could go off about the back-and-forth spat - which included a lawsuit - over 3G network maps for AT&T and Verizon. I could even bring up the fact that Verizon made a splashy announcement over its partnership with Google and how Google's Android is becoming a strong competitor to the iPhone.

But I've written all of that already.

If there was actual news of a Verizon-Apple deal to report, you can rest assured that I'd be chasing that Business Week story to get more details on the deal. But that's not the case here. I suspect that the editors at BW were just looking for some headlines to lure people in before they completely check out for the holidays.

I know how that can be.

Also see: Analyst: The iPhone's next carrier is likely T-Mobile, not Verizon