Verizon: Expect To Hear The News From Apple If We Get The iPhone

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Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal threw some more sparks at the kindling of the rumored Verizon iPhone, claiming that it was conclusively on track for debut in the first quarter of 2011.

Personally, I wasn’t inclined to believe the rumor. It was only two weeks ago that Verizon’s own CEO said that the iPhone wouldn’t be coming to their network until they had their 4G network in place, claiming that the wireless carrier needed to “earn” the iPhone.

Today, though, I’m ready to change my tune due to two new revelations. The first is that Verizon has announced that they would be rolling out 4G to 38 cities this year, and start showing off 4G-capable smartphones at CES in January 2011. That makes a 4G Verizon iPhone next year possible, even within the Wall Street Journal’s optimistic first quarter timeframe.

The second revelation? Some caginess on the part of Verizon, whose president and COO, Lowell McAdam, told press conference attendees that if Verizon were to get the iPhone, the announcement would come from Apple.

He continued by saying:

“What I’ve always said is I expect at some point in time our business interests are going to align. I think things like LTE are another great reason why they’d want a device or tablet on that network. But I don’t have anything to say today about timing.”

The stars do seem to be lining up for Verizon. AT&T’s exclusivity agreement is almost over. Their 4G network is almost in place. Apple seems to be working on a CDMA phone. The only thing that keeps me from getting my hopes up is the last three years spent being burned by this rumor in all of its iterations before.

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