Mobile phone geeks everywhere have been wondering just when Apple will cut off its exclusive partnership with AT&T and link arms with Verizon. Well, according to a report out today from The Wall Street Journal, that time may be coming very, very soon. The Journal, citing unnamed sources, said that Apple plans to begin producing a new iPhone later this year which would be made available through Verizon Wireless early next year.

The new phone is said to be similar to the iPhone 4, though it would run on Verizon's CDMA network.

Wireless journalist Glenn Fleishman addressed a CDMA-based iPhone during TechFlash Podcast, Episode 22. (That segment starts around minute 20). One interesting point Fleishman made is that you can't make calls and access the data network simultaneously on a CDMA network.

"That is the only technical issue ... why Verizon couldn't simply sell an (iPhone) tomorrow. Manufacturing ramp up is the big thing, " Fleishman said at the time.

In June, Bloomberg News reported that an iPhone would be coming to Verizon in January.

AT&T has been the exclusive network provider for the iPhone since the debut of the device in 2007. The timing of a Verizon-based phone could help Apple expand its market just as Microsoft unleashes its Windows Phone 7 operating system. It also will help Apple fend off growing competition from Google, whose Android-powered devices have been surging this year, according to a report out this week from Nielsen.