Could Rumoured Verizon iPhone Be First CDMA Handset with Simultaneous Voice and Data?

[Maura]

AppleInsider reports today that the much mooted Verizon iPhone could benefit from forthcoming upgrades to the CDMA wireless standard, which would enable Apple to be one of the first companies to use phones via the Sprint and Verizon wireless networks that had simultaneous voice and data transmission, such as is already in use on AT&T’s GSM network.

AppleInsider says that these new upgrades to the CDMA wireless standards would enable Apple to use a hybrid baseband controller from CDMA-maker Qualcomm that could simultaneously handle CDMA and GSM transmissions, therefore eliminating the need for two separate iPhones (one supporting GSM and one supporting CDMA), which would go against Apple’s preferred policy of only having one phone type available worldwide.

AppleInsider adds that according to a recent interview in the Wall Street Journal, CDMA Development Group spokesman Brad Shewmake said that the aforementioned upgrades, enabling CDMA networks to carry both voice and data at the same time, will be on the market as early as the first half of next year, which is exactly the time when Apple has been rumoured to be launching an iPhone compatible with the CDMA network. As AppleInsider points out, over the past few days, both the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal have reported the views of those familiar with Apple’s plans that Apple does indeed have a CDMA-capable iPhone in the works for early 2011.

Source: AppleInsider