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Speed differences between 3G and Edge?

EDGE tends to max out at around 384kbps (that's on the high end though, I usually hear speeds of around 200kbps) and 3G can get up to 10Mbps. I'm just ballparking, I am not 100% sure about these numbers.
 
yeh really is a massive difference in browsing speeds compare broadband to dialup connection - its well worth the upgrade if u use the internet alot on it oh and video calling too
 
yeah looking at thos enumber's tahts pretty huge if you are huge into surfing and specially video calling (hopefully available on iphone 2g)
 
extraextra said:
EDGE tends to max out at around 384kbps (that's on the high end though, I usually hear speeds of around 200kbps) and 3G can get up to 10Mbps. I'm just ballparking, I am not 100% sure about these numbers.
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Wow, if that is true then that is incredible! Because even WiFi seems slow sometimes. I guess I"m going to have to buy an iPhone 2 now :D
 
Zwhaler said:
Wow, if that is true then that is incredible! Because even WiFi seems slow sometimes. I guess I"m going to have to buy an iPhone 2 now :D
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Well, since wi-fi has faster speeds than 3G, good luck with that plan!

This highlights the fact that there are many, many issues besides connection speeds. Latency and page rendering play big parts too. For example, the EDGE service on the iPhone is about the same as many other phones with 3G because those phone's web browser isn't as good. Yet another example of how the connection speed isn't everything.

Will a 3G iPhone be faster than an EDGE iPhone? Of course. But if you're not happy with Wi-fi, then you have issues with other problems than the data connection.
 
I didn't say that 3G = 10Mbps, I'm just saying that on some networks, in optimal conditions, it is possible. Will AT&T have it, will we get speeds of 10Mbps, etc., I have no idea. Probably not.
 
yes but all those page rendering and stuff you speak of, isnt that all software related? maybe even firmware upgradable? if so thne at one point they will have to step it up and make it better but if speed is not up there they won t do it becaus etehy have nothign to work with, just my thoughts...
 
extraextra said:
I didn't say that 3G = 10Mbps, I'm just saying that on some networks, in optimal conditions, it is possible. Will AT&T have it, will we get speeds of 10Mbps, etc., I have no idea. Probably not.
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Very important to point out. "Up to" does not mean "that's what you're gonna get." With all the 3G traffic that will flood the network once the 3G iPhone is sold, it likely won't even come close to that. I mean DSL I know can get speeds faster than 6Mbps, but most people don't because you gotta pay for it. AT&T will likely set limits around 1Mbps so they aren't choked to death.

As far as EDGE, IT'S NOT DIAL-UP SPEED. There's no way images in my e-mail messages could download THAT quickly on a dial-up-speed connection. I haven't tested it yet, but I'm betting it's faster than 100kbps.
 
Michael CM1 said:
As far as EDGE, IT'S NOT DIAL-UP SPEED. There's no way images in my e-mail messages could download THAT quickly on a dial-up-speed connection. I haven't tested it yet, but I'm betting it's faster than 100kbps.
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You don't need to bet. :p

http://i.dslr.net/tinyspeedtest.html

Average EDGE on AT&T is about 130 kbps, spiking up on the weekends and so on. In other words, it's about 5-10x faster than dialup typical speeds (I think a lot of people who talk about dialup speeds maybe have actually never used a landline modem in their lives!).

But you're right, the "like dialup to broadband" comparison is silly, because EDGE is quite a lot faster than dialup, and HSPA is quite a lot slower than broadband.
 
Just some general responses:

1) it's too odd hearing someone say "3G versus EVDO". EVDO _is_ a 3G system. Perhaps everyone could use "HSPA and EVDO", as ATT uses the former.

2) I used to get 40Kbps regularly on a 56K dialup modem. So did the other 15,000 modems we were monitoring each day. Just a data point.

3) The maximum possible speed for EDGE in one direction is 236 Kbps. Not 300+.

4) My guess is that we'll probably get an average of around 700 Kbps over ATT's system, with bursts over 1MBps possible. And of course much less possible as well.

As I've posted here many times before, read below for a real world test between an ATT 3G phone and the iPhone. The real test will be between iPhones, but at least you can get a feel:

3G vs EDGE speed test
 
mkrishnan said:
You don't need to bet. :p

http://i.dslr.net/tinyspeedtest.html

Average EDGE on AT&T is about 130 kbps, spiking up on the weekends and so on. In other words, it's about 5-10x faster than dialup typical speeds (I think a lot of people who talk about dialup speeds maybe have actually never used a landline modem in their lives!).

But you're right, the "like dialup to broadband" comparison is silly, because EDGE is quite a lot faster than dialup, and HSPA is quite a lot slower than broadband.
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131kbps here. I don't think I ever got above 44kbps on dial-up. Thanks for helping prove my point. :)
 
While the theoretical max for an iPhone would be 236kb, the best you'll see is about 220. I've seen HSDxPA hit 2.2Mbps DL testing here in the Boston area. UL speeds have been max around 1.5Mbps.

-JR
 
Michael CM1 said:
131kbps here. I don't think I ever got above 44kbps on dial-up. Thanks for helping prove my point. :)
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Sure. :) Another one, if that one doesn't work, is

http://iphonenetworktest.com

... For both of them, for fun, you can turn your Wifi back on and see what the results are. ;)

For some reason, the tinyspeedtest one hangs when I do it on T-Mo EDGE. The other one works for me in both EDGE and WiFi; I get pretty variable results. Three tries this afternoon yielded 110, 160, and 200 kbps.
 
Food for thought...

Time to render MacRumors Home page on Edge connection: 35 - 40 seconds.

Using the iPhone as a modem for the MacBook (on same connection): 3 - 4 seconds (yes, 10 times faster).

Time to render MacRumors Home page using iPhone via WiFi on 6 Mb connection: 10 seconds.

Conclusion: There is a big bottleneck somewhere, and it ain't the data rate!!
 
Snide said:
Food for thought...

Time to render MacRumors Home page on Edge connection: 35 - 40 seconds.

Using the iPhone as a modem for the MacBook (on same connection): 3 - 4 seconds (yes, 10 times faster).

Time to render MacRumors Home page using iPhone via WiFi on 6 Mb connection: 10 seconds.

Conclusion: There is a big bottleneck somewhere, and it ain't the data rate!!
Click to expand...

Clear out the cache and all that crap on the MacBook and it'll take longer. Plus, the MacBook has a MUCH faster CPU and GPU than the iPhone. All the guts help when it comes to Weg pages, which is why some people point out that some stuff loads faster on the iPhone than some 3G smartphones that aren't as powerful.

I don't think the iPhone has an Internet cache. If I'm right, that's a very needed feature for the next firmware (along with some sort of disk access).
 
Michael CM1 said:
... All the guts help when it comes to Weg pages, which is why some people point out that some stuff loads faster on the iPhone than some 3G smartphones that aren't as powerful.
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It's absolutely true that "guts" help a lot. I can say from a decade of field experience with many thousands of users, a fast computer often more than makes up for slow connection speed.

However, there aren't many 3G smartphones that aren't "as powerful" as the iPhone. They're all pretty much the same, really. 300-500 MHz ARM, GPU, 64-128MB RAM, etc.

The real difference is in the browser. Microsoft's excuse for a browser for WM was a joke compared to Safari on iPhone, or IE6 running on Windows CE.

I don't think the iPhone has an Internet cache. If I'm right, that's a very needed feature for the next firmware (along with some sort of disk access).
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It does have a "Clear Cache" button :)

But I'm not sure if it uses the Flash, or just the onboard RAM (perhaps why the number of pages is limited). Someone who's jailbroken their phone should be able to check this out, I would think.
 
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