Verizon CEO: No iPhone Plans ... Yet

In an interview with The Wall Street Journal , Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg said the chances of an Apple iPhone on Verizon's network are slim, but that could change once the carrier's 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) network is up and running.

Seidenberg said Apple would be more open to discussing an LTE iPhone when that network is available, as it follows the same technology standard as AT&T's 4G plans.

Currently, the iPhone and Verizon wouldn't gel because Verizon runs a CDMA network and Apple has never considered building a CDMA version of the iPhone, instead opting for GSM connectivity. Seidenberg said a CDMA iPhone wouldn't present a wide enough distribution opportunity.

Seidenberg's comments come as the industry has all eyes on Apple, which is expected to launch a new iPhone model sometime this summer, possibly as soon as its June Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC).

This week, it was revealed that AT&T is pushing to continue its exclusivity with the Apple iPhone, looking to extend that agreement through 2011. AT&T has been the exclusive iPhone carrier since the 2007 launch of the first-generation iPhone. That agreement was extended for another year in 2008 with the release of the iPhone 3G and will expire at the end of this year.

The iPhone has been AT&T's superstar since it first hit the market in 2007. Roughly 17 million of the now-iconic smartphones have been sold in the past two years, and, in the second half of 2008, AT&T added 4.3 million iPhone subscribers, 40 percent of whom were new customers for the carrier.

If the exclusivity deal between Apple and AT&T were to expire, Apple could shop the device to different carriers, including Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon.