Will the Verizon iPhone be able to handle voice and data at the same time?

Here’s the problem with bringing the iPhone to Verizon’s network: Apple’s much-advertised ability to browse the web, and use other apps, while on a phone call is technically impossible with Verizon’s CDMA network.

But that is due to change next year with a solution that will handle voice and data simultaneously, according to comments made by CDMA Development Group spokesperson Brad Shewmake to the Wall Street Journal.

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While the fabled Verizon iPhone has remained speculation for years, recent reports suggest that we may actually see it some time in early 2011. The fact that we’re expecting revamped CDMA technology and a CDMA-ready Verizon iPhone around the same time may be more than just coincidental, AppleInsider points out. It’s very likely that the Verizon iPhone will be one of the first phones to sport the ability to use voice and data at the same time.

Indeed, Apple’s reluctance to release a Verizon iPhone earlier may have been related to the current limits of CDMA technology (although AT&T’s reported five-year exclusivity agreement may have also had something to do with it). Apple isn’t the sort of company that would reduce the functionality of its products unless it was absolutely necessary. Bringing the iPhone to Verizon without the possibility of simultaneous voice and data usage would have given the carrier’s customers a diluted version of what AT&T users experience on the iPhone.

In other iPhone buzz, the 2011-generation iPhone likely won’t support LTE — the 4G cellular network technology currently being deployed by AT&T and Verizon — sources tell TechCrunch. The sources also say that the next iPhone may be both GSM and CDMA compatible, meaning it would work across AT&T and Verizon’s dueling networks and ensure global network compatibility. Given that Apple held off on including 3G in the first iPhone, it’s not at all surprising to hear that it would take a wait-and-see approach with LTE.

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