2:00 PM -- The virtual line for the Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) 3G CDMA iPhone starts at 3 a.m. Thursday for existing Verizon Wireless customers.

Yep, pre-orders of the long-awaited device start in the wee hours for Verizon subs. The iPhone will run you $199 for a 16GB model or $299 for a 32GB model with a two-year contract. The official launch for the wider public will happen on Feb. 10. I think we can take it as 99 percent certain that they will sell out of the first batch quickly. The only question is exactly how long it will take and will it crash Verizon's website in the process?

So, I want to try and avoid the "man bites dog" route on this one and focus on why you're buying one, or not. Obviously, there's a good deal of pent-up demand and some Verizon customers will just WANT ONE whatever. I've noticed, in talking with friends and colleagues recently, about this that people are a bit more informed about the impact of the iPhone on the underlying network this time around.

It's interesting: People uniformly ask me one of these two paraphrased questions:

Should I keep my AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) iPhone; will service get better on AT&T if lots of people move to Verizon?

Or:

Will Verizon face the same kind of challenges that AT&T has struggled with on the network service side because of the iPhone arriving?

My instinct on this is that AT&T is bringing on enough other smart phones, tablets and 3G laptops that you won't notice a difference even if a couple of million people jump ship on Feb. 10.

I also suspect it will take months for any capacity issues to surface at Verizon. They, of course, insist that they're absolutely up to handling the massive amounts of extra data traffic that the iPhone users could generate on their network.

So what's your thinking? Are you desperate to take the plunge with the Verizon iPhone or more likely to wait and see? Perhaps you're happy with your Verizon Droid and are wondering what all the fuss is about anyway?

Let me know on the message board below and don't forget to set that alarm clock on Wednesday!

— Dan Jones, Site Editor, Light Reading Mobile