No Network Can Handle iPhone Traffic

AT&T has been taking a lot of hits over their network issues these past few years brought on by the iPhone and the amount of data its users consume. Verizon's "There's A Map For That" ad campaign has been taking jabs at AT&T over their 3G network coverage and performance. Some think though that no US 3G network is ready for a device like the iPhone.CoolTechZone noted that during the 2010 CES event, AT&T couldn't keep their network up even with a year's worth of notice. While some may be pining for the iPhone on Verizon, will it fare any better? Is their network today so overbuilt that it can handle a few million users with phones capable of sucking down 400MB per month? I have a MiFi on the Verizon network with a 5GB monthly plan. I rarely approach that, but there are some days where I may download an .ISO file from MSDN when in an area where there is no other network and it comes down in a very reasonable time. However, I am not competing with tens of thousands of others in the local area for that kind of bandwidth.

Verizon does have the Droid, and more Android devices are on the way. Will they be able to handle it? The consumer won't know for a few months, but I suspect Verizon thinks they will be in the same position as AT&T is today. Verizon CTO David Lynch said on that unlimited plans aren't sustainable and stated that there will be devices on the networks sooner or later that will be bandwidth intensive. Variable rate plans will be one way to curtail excessive data usage. This is a signal that our all-you-can-eat data plans may be coming to an end, and those with data hungry devices will be expected to pay a higher monthly rate.