no much sooner. Motorola started work on hybrids before the merger. I heard about it about a year and a half ago. In 2008 (2 to 3 years away) the iden system will be done. they are going to use the ev-do system to replace the iden system. The capacity is almost endless and speed is faster than iden.
The plan is for iden to be completely phased out by 2010, which means no new iden signups after 2008, so hybrid phones wont be too far off in teh future...