Thomas T. Veldhouse wrote:

> You missed my point. You can only activate Verizon approved phones on their
> network [even via the online tool]. Verizon has promised to open this up, but
> they also promised to go to pro-rated early termination fees and I haven't
> seen that materialize ... so vapor is vapor until otherwise revealed.

I didn't miss it. Technically you can only activate iPhones on AT&T.
Apple didn't care about the phone being able to be used on multiple
networks, in fact they made attempts to prevent this from occurring.

Perhaps one reason Apple wanted Verizon so badly was because preventing
the use of the phone on other CDMA networks would have been much easier.
Indeed, maybe the reason they wanted Verizon in the U.S. was because the
U.S. model phones could then not be used in Europe or much of Asia, on
GSM networks, with Apple losing their cut. Look at where most of the
unactivated iPhones ended up.

You're also mistaken about ETFs on Verizon. Pro-rated termination fees
are already in effect at Verizon (for more than a year in fact, since
November 2006), the ETF goes down $5/month, i.e. at 23 months you'd pay
$175-($5 x 23)=$60. AT&T and T-Mobile have announced pro-rated ETFs, but
haven't implemented them yet.

From: "http://www.verizonwireless.com/"

"AN EARLY TERMINATION FEE WILL APPLY IF YOU CHOOSE TO END YOUR SERVICE
BEFORE BECOMING A MONTH–TO–MONTH CUSTOMER, OR IF WE TERMINATE IT EARLY
FOR GOOD CAUSE. FOR SERVICE ACTIVATED PRIOR TO 11/16/06, THE EARLY
TERMINATION FEE IS $175 PER WIRELESS PHONE NUMBER. FOR SERVICE ACTIVATED
ON OR AFTER 11/16/06, OR FOR LINES OF SERVICE WITH MINIMUM TERMS
EXTENDED ON OR AFTER 11/16/06, THE EARLY TERMINATION FEE IS $175, WHICH
WILL BE REDUCED BY $5 FOR EACH FULL MONTH TOWARD YOUR MINIMUM TERM THAT
YOU COMPLETE."