Everyone who expects Verizon to be completely unaffected coverage and service-wise by an influx of data-hungry iPhone users…sorry.
As someone who has worked in the wireless telecom industry since the late 80s, no company out there has a magic network that can handle every eventuality, without taking a hit in some way.
Verizon uses CDMA technology as the core of their wireless network. While one of the advantages to CDMA is a higher potential capacity, it also comes with it’s own set of quirks.
Yes, suddenly dumping a large number of new users on a network will have negative effects, some of which will be felt by existing users. An example is the effect called “cell breathing” as defined below.
An operational problem in code division multiple access (CDMA) is the breathing effect. Breathing is caused by a full cell, so users at long enough distances cannot be connected to the service and the cell appears to have become smaller. If the user numbers are less, then cell capacity becomes the previous value, so the user can be connected again, hence the cell appears to grow. There may be areas not included in a cell boundary (blank spot). In digital communication, the connection quality judgement is by comparison of energy per bit per noise gain density, a parameter known as Eb/N0. The observed Eb/N0 value depends on user reflection gain which is determined by the chosen channel model. The paper investigates the free space, Lee, and Hata channel propagation models.
Basically, the higher the demand within a cell site, the smaller that cell site gets. If this happens on neighboring cells, you’ve now got cells pulling apart, and potentially leaving a coverage gap between. Hello dropped call, can you hear me now?
I’m not VZ bashing, not by any means, I’ve worked for multiple carriers over my career including VZ. Here’s the truth…they are all about the same. YOU may have had, individually, a good or bad experience with coverage or customer service, or whatever, but overall, there’s not a spit’s worth of difference between the major carriers.
For all Droid users on Verizon, you will rue the day that the iPhone users got on your network. It will take a while but it WILL affect your service.