Chattanooga Verizon customers get their hands on the iPhone 4

photo Latisha Williams sets up an iPhone 4 for James Higginbotham at the Ooltewah Verizon store Thursday morning. Higginbotham arrived outside the store just after 5am securing himself the first spot in line for the phone.

James Higginbotham, a Chattanooga area IT developer, was one of the first buyers of Verizon's new iPhone 4 on the East Coast this morning.

Only a few customers braved the snow to get to Verizon stores before they opened but more began coming in as time passed.

Twenty staff members at Verizon's Ooltewah location were there to greet nine customers at 7 a.m. when the store opened.

Verizon iPhone customers will be able to take advantage of what the company calls "America's largest and most reliable 3G network" on which it has spent $60 billion in the last few years.

"I like to be the first with new technology," Higginbotham. "I've had dreams about the iPhone."

He said what he was most excited about was playing Angry Birds, a widely popular mobile game.

Another 25 people waited outside the Verizon store on Gunbarrel Road in the freezing temperatures, while another dozen were at the Cleveland location as the store opened.

One customer in Cleveland had been camped out since 4 p.m. Wednesday.

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