Verizon iPhone goes live Thursday

N.C. Verizon stores will open at 7 a.m. Thursday as the company officially begins selling Apple's iPhone in its stores. Stores will allow customers to line up as early as 5 a.m. Thursday

Existing Verizon customers were able to pre-order last week online and some have already received their phones, including some locally who have reached out to us via email. Verizon said that the pre-sale was the largest single phone launch in its history, and the launch window officially lasted about 5 hours, from 3 a.m. to 8 a.m.

Thursday's sales figures will be much bigger.

Currently, all customers can pre-order on Verizon's website. But expect many long waiting Verizon customers to line up for the Apple device.

More than 600 Walmart stores will also carry the Verizon phone and accessories beginning Thursday. Best Buy will also carry the Verizon device at launch.

Best cell phone quality in the area? Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile, survey says

The latest JD Power Survey on Wireless Call Quality was released today and in our Southeast region, Verizon, T-Mobile and Sprint tied for the top spot.

The study measures wireless call quality, based on seven problem areas that impact overall carrier performance: dropped calls; static/interference; failed call connection on the first try; voice distortion; echoes; no immediate voicemail notification; and no immediate text message notification.

Verizon Wireless also won for the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic and West regions. U.S. Cellular Corp. was No. 1 the North Central region. T-Mobile was no. 1 in the Southwest.

AT&T was the only carrier to not garner a top placing in any of the six regions.

AT&T released a letter to consumers earlier this week assuring them of quality upgrades in this region (click here to see it).