By now, everyone and their mother has heard about the Bloomberg story yesterday that Verizon will get the iPhone by early next year. We’ve heard this before.

Here’s the top of the story.

Verizon Wireless, the largest U.S. mobile-phone company, will start selling Apple Inc.’s iPhone next year, ending AT&T Inc.’s exclusive hold on the smartphone in the U.S., two people familiar with the plans said.

The device will be available to customers in January, according to the people, who declined to be named because the information isn’t public. Natalie Kerris, an Apple spokeswoman, and Jeffrey Nelson, a Verizon Wireless spokesman, declined to comment.

I was just on the phone with Verizon Blackberry support tech, who out of the blue offered me the iPhone – in jest, of course, but it was bold offer by a guy whose ilk are usually pretty scripted. This guy was good technically and spoke freely. “Both [Apple and Verizon] denied it so it must be true,” he said (they actually had no comment, which is even more of a loaded non-response).

“Let me tell you, it has been a roller coaster. Yes [we going to get it], no (we’re not going to get it], yes, no, yes, no. Our CEO has told Apple “we are waiting for you…we’re ready when you are…we want it,” he said.

Assuming it’s as powerful as the iPhone 4, the new addition would be one more step to Verizon’s domination of the U.S. wireless market. The Bloomberg story guesstimates Verizon could sell 12 million iPhones in the first year and it fair to assume many would be defections from AT&T’s inferior network.

“We can put AT&T out of business,” the Verizon spokesman volunteered (I was not playing my reporter self – this guy wanted to talk about this as we established a rapport). Coincidentally Verizon just launched it Rule the Air ad campaign to drive home that its network is superior to arch rival AT&T’s. The massage? To make sure “the signal is strong so the most important transmitter is you.”

Last week, I blogged about the blitz of phones Verizon is unleashing, which is hedging its bets if it doesn’t get the iPhone. Today’s expanding crop of Droids do just about as much the iPhone so that base is covered. The iPhone would be just one more red hot offering to Verizon’s 92.8 million wireless customers (to AT&T’s 85.1 million).

How can Apple ignore Verizon’s huge installed base any longer? Fact is, it can’t. Outlook for AT&T? Gloomy.

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