When you look at the pros and cons, it’s still not very clear who the winner will be. If you absolutely hate the call quality of AT&T in your area and are furious at the removal of unlimited bandwidth then you’ll be happy to jump ship over to Verizon.
If you go with Verizon then you’ll be losing web-surfing while talking, but you’ll have better call quality (depending on your area) and unlimited data plans. Technically you’ll have less bandwidth available, but in practical use you won’t notice.
If you choose to stick with AT&T then you’ll probably have a higher phone bill, as you have to pay for features that Verizon is practically giving away, like data tethering and 3G hotspot support.
Jailbreaking your iPhone can unlock the data sharing features of the iPhone. You won’t have to pay for the tethering feature, but you will be subject to AT&T’s 2GB-per-month limit. Jailbroken phones also benefit from other features that neither Verizon or AT&T can touch, like Flash support, homebrew applications like MyWi and console emulators.
In the end, the real winner is YOU. Companies only start charging fair prices when there is fair competition. Now that Verizon is offering unlimited bandwidth for the same amount of money as AT&T’s limited plan, AT&T may have to reconsider their former blunder in order to keep customers. Companies do not push innovation until someone else comes along and starts taking money out of their wallet. Although Apple’s iPhone has a lot going for it, there has always been a little bit held back. This healthy competition will likely unleash all of the features that consumers have wanted without any compromises.
If innovation remains stagnant, then that leaves room for someone else to come along and totally blindside everyone, making the iPhone “so 2010”. The iPhone is great, but it’s time we had something better.
