Verizon on AT&T customers: 'We'll take every one of 'em'
NEW YORK -- Verizon COO Lowell McAdam said on Tuesday that the carrier will be happy to take AT&T customers who defect in light of the new Verizon iPhone 4.
"Well, we'll take every one of 'em," he said, responding to a question posed by a PBS Nightly Business Report anchor while shooting a segment outside of the Frederick P. Rose Hall at Lincoln Center.
The question is whether it is to be believed that the iPhone's expansion to include the Verizon network is "overblown," as one analyst suggested earlier this week.
As Erik Sherman notes on ZDNet sister site BNET, AT&T recently had its best quarter ever with regard to iPhone shipments, moving more than five million. Even the most optimistic predictions suggest Verizon could do the same -- but the question is how much that's at the expense of AT&T.
A few points to remember:
- Most AT&T folks are locked into two-year contracts and can't move.
- Most Verizon customers are as well.
- Verizon is only better for some folks in some places. They get a lot of positive press here in NYC because AT&T has such poor service in the city, but in lots of places between New York and San Francisco, AT&T not only works fine, but is preferable.