Why Would AT&T Make This Deal With Verizon?

It can certainly be said that the smartphone wars wouldn’t be much of a fight without carriers to support the powerful devices. The carriers supporting all the devices have their own little fights going on as well, naturally. However, a lull in the antagonism gave Verizon (NYSE:VZ) and AT&T (NYSE:T) time to reach a mutually-beneficial agreement.

AT&T and Verizon are the two largest mobile carriers in the U.S., and it’s only natural that they compete fiercely. One of the big battles going on is the rush to develop an expansive 4G network to draw in speed-seeking customers.

So far, Verizon is well ahead of AT&T in the development of a 4G network — Verizon’s 4G LTE network was available to over 250 million people in 417 markets in 2012, while AT&T is still working to cover 300 million people with their 4G LTE by 2014. Verizon may get even further ahead after a curious deal it made with AT&T Wednesday…