Originally Posted By: tonyc
Do all iPhones get IOS releases at the same time regardless of carrier? (Not a rhetorical question -- I honestly have no idea how iOS upgrades work.)

Yep. When Apple flips a switch, any iPhone from any carrier or network technology gets the update. With iOS 5, these updates are available OTA as well as via iTunes. Apple doesn't do a push, the phones and iTunes just check in on a weekly basis for new software. People can manually check for an update to get it on day one. And from my understanding, these files come from Apple servers, not carrier specific servers.