The context of this story

Year: 2008
Products: iPhone

CDMA version for Verizon

At the end of 2010, information emerged that Apple was preparing a version of the iPhone for CDMA networks. The five-year exclusivity contract with AT&T was coming to an end, and Verizon’s CDMA network remained the largest American network. Verizon also realized that not having the iPhone was a disadvantage that could not be offset by exclusive supplies from the struggling Motorola. And so the companies agreed to launch the iPhone for CDMA networks. Negotiations began in 2008, but due to exclusivity, it was necessary to wait. In the end, a prototype phone for CDMA networks was tested for more than a year to verify that Apple’s design was reliable. And it was Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam who confirmed in January 2011 that the iPhone 4 would be available on the Verizon network starting in February. However, there was a catch. The CDMA versions were not dual, but really just CDMA versions. Therefore, they could not be used in GSM or UMTS networks. They supported CDMA network types, including the EV-DO Revision A high-speed data network (similar to HSDPA), but did not support LTE, the latest standard for high-speed data networks, which Verizon was just starting to roll out.

Apple later confirmed that the CDMA version is not adapted to LTE networks simply because the first generation of chips supplied by third parties has its flaws and it will take some time to iron them out, while Verizon customers want their iPhone now. It would also be difficult to combine GSM and CDMA. Customers will have to wait until October, when Apple will introduce the new iPhone 4S.

Speculation about the new iPhone was intensifying. The public once again began speculating about its features and name, with some suggesting that the new iPhone would be called [the “five]{dir=”rtl”},” even though the existing tradition of naming phones did not suggest this.

In May 2011, the first credible hints about the phone’s specifications leaked, along with claims that it would be called the iPhone 4S, but until the last moment, the media believed that Apple would name it the iPhone 5 after all. Even the day before the announcement, some Czech media outlets were so certain that they announced the fifth version in their daily editions, and the Czech store Alza.cz offered it for pre-order.

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