Well, who didn’t see this coming? With AT&T no longer being the sole purveyor of the iPhone, those who complained about abysmal AT&T service now have options. Research company ChangeWave took a look at the state of the mobile market in the United States and discovered that 26 percent of AT&T iPhone users plan on switching to Verizon. Ouch.

You can check out the full survey here, but here are the juicy parts:

Within the next 90 days:

What’s more, 16 percent of surveyed AT&T customers said they were planning to switch to Verizon if it started offering the iPhone (the survey was completed mere days before the Verizon iPhone announcement) and 23 percent responded they were “unsure” about switching. But here’s where it gets bad for AT&T: a full 26 percent of existing iPhone customers said they wanted to leave AT&T for a Verizon iPhone. The survey also showed that 41 percent of those 26 percent were unhappy enough to leave AT&T mid-contract and get the Verizon iPhone within the first three months, and 31 percent said they leave would inside the year.

Wow. That’s bad news for AT&T.

But again, this is survey and therefore heavy on speculation. Who knows what will happen when Verizon actually ends up dealing with the iPhone’s extra burden on its network? It’s honestly too early to say.

Here’s something to consider: If AT&T’s network traffic of iPhone users gets 26 percent lighter, will AT&T’s network performance suddenly get better? Is Verizon in over its head? We should have the answers to these questions and more by the end of February.

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