Rumor: The CDMA iPhone Rides Again

The evergreen rumor of a CDMA iPhone coming soon re-emerged Tuesday, with The Wall Street Journal reporting that an Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) phone using that 3G technology could arrive in the fall.

The Journal is citing sources saying that Taiwanese operation Pegatron Technology Corp., the contract manufacturing subsidiary of AsusTek Computer Inc. , will make the phone. The paper also suggests that a new GSM iPhone for AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) will arrive in the summer, which would fit with the timeline that Apple has previously followed for iPhone upgrades.

AT&T has had an exclusive deal on the iPhone for a number of years. Neither Apple nor the carrier has revealed when this deal actually runs out. (See AT&T Seeks to Extend Exclusive iPhone Deal.)

Verizon isn't commenting on the report: "We don't have anything to say," a spokesman tells LR Mobile. Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg told the WSJ back in April 2009 that Apple had never considered developing a CDMA iPhone, but is more likely to support the Long Term Evolution (LTE) network technology that both AT&T and Verizon are moving to. There have, of course, been a rash of rumors about a CDMA iPhone and the end of the AT&T contract before in the last few years. None have yet panned out. (See An LTE iPhone? Think 2012 (or Later).) — Dan Jones, Site Editor, Light Reading Mobile