Verizon to sell iPhone 4 this month

The cat is near as darn it out of the bag. US carrier Verizon will announce next week that it's going to offer the iPhone 4.

It'll be doing so during the last week of the month if reports that Apple has told its retail employees that holidays are a no-no during that period are correct.

Verizon's oft-predicted announcement will take place on Tuesday, according to the inevitable "person familiar with the matter", as cited by the Wall Street Journal.

The carrier is certainly making an announcement of some kind on that day: it has already sent out invites to US media, like the one reprinted by Ars Technica.

AT&T has had the US exclusive on the iPhone since the first-gen handset was released in June 2007. Many other countries which originally were home to a single iPhone supplier have now gone multi-operator, but not the US.

And we wonder if the arrival of Verizon will see Apple finally sell unlocked iPhones in the States, as it does almost everywhere else. ®