Iris includes several components that could be used to spit out data about an individual user's data usage patterns. That kind of information would be critical to that it will throttle back data speeds on the heaviest 5% of data users to keep the network running efficiently for other customers.

The announcement . However, analysts said that throttling will be necessary to keep networks running efficiently as more and tablets access wireless networks and place greater demands on them with interactive gaming, video and mobile payments.

The data throttling threat came just before Verizon began selling the 4 on its CDMA-EV-DO network.

The Iris monitoring tools will be focused on LTE, Verizon said, which the current Verizon iPhone does not use. However, an LTE iPhone is expected at some point, and Verizon said today it will .

Analysts said Verizon hopes to thwart the kind of network problems AT&T faced with iPhone, which it sold exclusively in the U.S. for more than three years.