Verizon COO Lowell McAdam said, as he unveiled the new iPhone, that if the press writes about something long enough and hard enough, eventually it comes true. If you're a Verizon customer who's been wanting an iPhone, or a resident of San Francisco or New York City who is tired of dealing with AT&T's wonky wireless service, today is your lucky day--well, actually, February 10 is the real day to pin down on your calendar.

Anyway, we know how hard it is to temper techno-lust with logic. So we crunched the numbers on your potential new acquisition so you don't have to.

Cost of Phone

Verizon iPhone 4 is priced at $199.99 for 16GB or $299.99 for 32GB. It's the same phone that AT&T offers, including pricing and configuration, so there's no compelling hardware reason to switch if you already have an iPhone 4.

Cost of Service

The usual 2-year contract and data plan will be required, but rather oddly Verizon reps at today's media event made a point of not discussing the cost of iPhone service plans or, notably, the cost of the heavily touted mobile hot spot service.  It's likely that Verizon will match its Droid pricing for iPhone mobile hot spots, so expect to pay about $20 a month for that service.

The Fickle-You Fee

It's going to cost you to free yourself from the shackles of AT&T. If you purchased your iPhone after June 1, 2010, you'll be paying an early-termination fee of $325, minus $10 for each month you completed on the contract. So, if you bought your iPhone the day it was released, you'll pay. It'll also cost you $265 to get out of your contract. 

If you purchased your phone before June 2010, the early-termination fee is $175, prorated by $5 for each month completed.

Wireless Quality

We've all heard about those weak signals and dropped calls on AT&T's network, but will Verizon's CDMA network be any better once the hordes of data-sucking iPhones are set lose on its wireless network? Verizon says yes, and the mobile network is ready for the challenge. Verizon has already been torture-tested with its family of 3G Android phones, so it's likely any issues have already been addressed.

That said, the Verizon 4 iPhone is a 3G device, and Verizon's CDMA wireless network is a bit outdated and pokey. It's likely you'll see a slowdown if you've been getting decent wireless service from AT&T, whose 3G network is technically capable of better performance than Verizon's. And, CDMA splits the voice and data networks, meaning there is no simultaneous voice and data calls. But it probably means fewer dropped calls due to overloaded data networks.

Verizon company representatives did not say whether a purported iPhone 5 with 4G LTE service would be released, but we do know that four Android 4G LTE phones are slated to be available later this year. Verizon reps say that running an iPhone on the company's 4G network called for "design compromises" that no one was willing to make.

Rumors

The law of probability says a new iPhone is due in early summer, one likely to run on Verizon's 4G network. It's equally likely that Verizon, unless its executives are utterly insane, will offer a sweet upgrade deal for any customers that buy the iPhone now. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that analysts think Verizon will likely sell seven million to 13 million iPhones this year, and no one wants a mob of a  few million disgruntled customers waving torches and pitchforks in front of corporate headquarters.