AT&T iPhone Exclusivity Termination to be Made Official on January 27?

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AT&T will lose its precious iPhone exclusivity deal at some point in the future and that’s a fact. It only remains to be seen when that will happen. Earlier reports said that AT&T’s agreement with Apple will end this summer but recent rumors say that everything could go down earlier than expected. According to some sources Apple is expected to announce everything this Wednesday, January 27 at the tablet-centered media event.

What’s really strange about this rumor is the fact that AT&T is rumored to want to end its exclusivity deal. AT&T seems not willing to put up with the bad publicity coming with the iPhone. Sure, the carrier has sold millions of iPhones and cashed in on Apple’s ingenuity but all that came with a tremendous price.

The more iPhones AT&T sold, the less reliable its 3G network became. Connectivity issues, dropped calls, bandwidth congestion became something regular for AT&T iPhone customers in large metropolitan areas.

On the other hand Apple should also be waiting to offer the iPhone to other carriers in the USA. Last year various rumors regarding the smartphone said that Cupertino is considering launching the iPhone with either Verizon or T-Mobile, depending on who you ask. The only thing is that no matter what carrier will start selling the iPhone next, Apple will have to build a new version of it: a CDMA iPhone for Verizon or an iPhone capable to deal with T-Mobile’s 1700MHz 3G band.

But it’s Verizon, the number one carrier in the U.S., the most likely candidate to get the iPhone. In fact the carrier might sell the unannounced Apple tablet too so if Apple will indeed strike a tablet deal with Big Red, why not include the iPhone too?

All of this is yet to be confirmed and with two days to go until the tablet becomes official, this is by far the most intriguing rumor we’ve heard these past few weeks. Are you going to switch from AT&T to Verizon should Apple announce the later as its new iPhone partner?