Verizon Wireless's

Verizon Wireless's embrace of Google Inc.'s Android operating system did more than provide the carrier with devices to compete with the iPhone. It also gave the company experience dealing with the data hogs who can hobble a wireless network.

That experience may help answer one of the big questions facing the nation's top wireless carrier ahead of its possible introduction of Apple Inc.'s phone next year: Can the company's network withstand millions of iPhone users?



Apple is making a version of the iPhone that Verizon Wireless will sell early next year, according to people familiar with the matter. The carrier has been meeting with Apple, adding capacity and testing its networks to prepare for the heavy data load from iPhone users.

At the end of September, Verizon Wireless had some nine million Android subscribers, up from none a year earlier, said Matthew Goodman, a senior analyst with Majestic Research.

AT&T is carrying a heavier load—16.5 million iPhone customers at the end of September, Mr. Goodman estimates. But Android users appear to consume more data than iPhone owners.

The average iPhone user consumes 344 megabytes of data a month, according to figures from Validas, a Missouri City, Texas, company that advises consumers and businesses on ways to lower their cellphone costs by analyzing their monthly phone bills. Validas produced the data by studying tens of thousands of consumer-billing statements.

AT&T's executives have acknowledged that they underestimated the load that iPhone users would bring. Late last year, the company embarked on a major effort to improve service, particularly in New York City and San Francisco, boosting network spending by $2 billion. While much of the work has been completed in New York, San Francisco isn't yet up to the carrier's own quality standards Efforts to repair AT&T's image with customers are also lagging.