WSJ: Verizon iPhone wait's over; phone debuts Tuesday

According to the Wall Street Journal, the iPhone comes to Verizon next week.

After rumors for more than two years, Apple's phone will hit Verizon on Tuesday, according to WSJ, which said Verizon will make the announcement Tuesday. It's unclear when the device will launch, but it's expected to run on Verizon's current 3G network and not its newer LTE network which offers home-like broadband speeds.

Analysts expect the move to hurt AT&T, which has been the sole U.S. iPhone carrier since it debuted three years ago, but say it will be particularly hard on Sprint and T-Mobile, which will be the two largest carriers to not have Apple's device.

The WSJ also reports that Verizon has been working to strengthen its network in advance of launching the iPhone to avoid the network slowdowns and dropped calls that have plagued some of AT&T iPhone customers.

Meanwhile, Verizon has sent out media invitations for an event in New York City. It says rather cryptically, "Join us as we share the latest news." Lowell McAdam, Verizon CEO, will handle the keynote.

There was no mention of the iPhone at Verizon's Consumer Electronics Show keynote Thursday, when the carrier touted its next gen network's strength and showed off several phones and tablets that will use the new network, most running Android software.