Verizon iPhone release date closing in fast

After years of rumors, questions, and frustrations from some AT&T customers, the Verizon iPhone is real. America's largest cellular network announced Tuesday that it will soon carry America's most popular cellphone.

Now that the partnership is official, the most important question is: When?

The Verizon iPhone release date will be February 10. Current Verizon customers may pre-order the phone on February 3.

Price tags range from $199 for the 16GB model, $299 for 32GB.

The Verizon handset will be the same iPhone 4 offered to AT&T customers, with a few interesting tweaks. (Check out our full breakdown of how the Verizon iPhone differs from the AT&T iPhone.)

SEE RELATED ARTICLE: iPhone 4 vs. Droid X: How do they compare?

The chief differentiator will likely be connection strength. No one has played with the Verizon iPhone long enough to properly review it. However, Verizon has an impressive history of customer satisfaction. Consumer Reports' Winter 2010 reader survey tracked carrier quality in 26 metro areas – across all handsets, not just the iPhone. Verizon topped the satisfaction charts for every city. AT&T came in last place for 19 of them.

But AT&T PR head Larry Solomon fired back at this assumption in a recent Business Insider article. "The iPhone is built for speed, but that's not what you get with a CDMA phone," he said, referring to Verizon's network technology. "I'm not sure iPhone users are ready for life in the slow lane."

We'll see who's correct in February.

SEE RELATED ARTICLE: Verizon iPhone? Check. Sprint and T-Mobile iPhone? Maybe.