IPhone a top-secret jewel for AT&T

ATLANTA — By necessity, Glenn Lurie has become a rather sneaky man.

When his company, Cingular Wireless, put him in charge of negotiating a deal to carry Apple's iPhone about two years ago, he kept the secret from outsiders — even his immediate family members.

Last month, when Lurie became one of a small number of people in the world to get an iPhone, he kept it under wraps. He tested the device on the sly, though he was caught by an occasional onlooker. Someone recognized the device while Lurie used it in an airport, prompting him to quickly put it away.

"Trying to use this thing and hide it has been pretty interesting," Lurie said. "I've had many people get a glimpse."

Even at his own home in suburban Atlanta, the iPhone remains largely off-limits. "I have not allowed my children or my wife to play with it," he said.

While Apple has received the bulk of the attention for the iPhone, AT&T's Atlanta-based wireless unit — formerly known as Cingular — is working overtime to get ready, too. AT&T made many concessions to win the right to sell the vaunted iPhone and is abiding by Apple's fervor for secrecy.

Lurie, president of national distribution for AT&T's wireless operation, has played a key role in the company's ongoing work with Apple. Now, with the launch of the iPhone just days away, perhaps the most intense part of the process is about to begin. The former Cingular has handled big product launches before, but nothing quite like this.

"I think it will be a brand new experience for us," Lurie said. "There's no question."

Consider the following:

• AT&T will sell the device in about 1,800 stores. While the launch is set for 6 p.m. today, AT&T won't divulge how many phones each store will get. Eager buyers are expected to line up or even camp out overnight.

• AT&T has hired about 2,000 extra staffers, or about one per store, to help with the launch. Some are likely to become permanent employees.

• Store staffers haven't been given iPhones, and the devices aren't being shipped to retail sites early, in order to prevent advance sales.

• Relatively few people have used an iPhone. A handful were handed out to influential product reviewers, such as Walter Mossberg of The Wall Street Journal, who on Tuesday called it "a beautiful and breakthrough hand-held computer."

While other new cellphones have created a lot of anticipation — Motorola's then-cutting-edge Razr was hot in late 2005, for example — the iPhone has generated more buzz than anything AT&T, or the industry, has ever seen.