[quote name='ryanbph']well it isn't so much as verizon was doing poorly. There network is arguably one of the best. I would imagine it would have more to do with having to pay to lock up phone exclusive to be on there network. For example the iphone. Allegedly apple wanted 20% of the monthly service fee, the full sale of the phone, and all customer service calls to be routed to them. Apple was in talks long before they went to at&t. They couldn't come to terms, and apple went elsewhere. I would imagine that verizon lost some customers to get an iphone. At the announcement, it was assumed that verizon would lose 1 mill customers to at&t due to the iphone exclusive. There is no numbers on how many customers they have lost, but I would imagine it was a few.
If they open the network, then the customer would decide who to go with based off of the network not the phones offered by a given provider. Verizon most likely feels they have a great network and fee structure. While currently they won't be compatible with at&t and tmobile due to different network setups, they are compatible with sprint/nextel phones. Currently sprint has lost about 1mill customers this year, and if verizon allows sprint customers to keep there phone I would imagine they assume they could get a large portion of those fleeing sprint. In the end, if all providers have 1 basic network setup, then the cost of the services should drop as there would be no reason besides network availablity and fee's to determine which provider to deal with.
A lot of this has to do with google and there announced open network for phones and other devices. Allegedly that is going to be free and many providers of a variety of products are scared shitless about it. Also there is a huge bandwidth package to be sold by the fcc shortly. Gaining a large amount of customers in a short time period will increase cash thus enabling them to bid more or have a greater desire to own that bandwidth. Not only will they greatly increase there network with that bandwidth, it could keep google out of market. It has been assumed google is going to buy it.[/quote]
Ah.. that'd do it. Thanks, man. Like I said, I really didn't know, so I was curious. Much appreciated.