I got 8.1mbp/s on my dad's Blackberry
Actually, no, you didn't get 8.1Mbps on your dad's Blackberry. Rather, testmyiphone.com measured the speed from its site to the site of the Blackbery
PROXY at RIM's datacenter in Waterloo, ON Canada. So, Waterloo is getting 8.1Mbps. The throughput from there to your dad's Blackberry is probably a far slower speed.
All data transferred on a Blackberry is handled through RIM's proxy network, which caches web pages and e-mail before sending it on to your handset. That proxy is used to reformat HTML and e-mail pages to your specific device's display. For this reason, most speedtests from a Blackberry will be greatly exaggerated.
The advantage to the proxy is:
- It's what makes push e-mail happen
- It makes sure RIM's up-to-now limited browser doesn't crash when viewing complex web pages
- You can greatly exaggerate your speed test results.
The drawback is when
RIM's network goes offline, and Blackberries end up without data capability. During these times, other smartphones (Windows Mobile, Symbian, Palm OS, iPhones) are unaffected.
The iPhone doesn't use a proxy, so there what you see is what you get.
The way to test your dad's Blackberry correctly is to
tether your blackberry to a laptop, and then use a site like speedtest.net. Tethered data connections do not go through the proxy.
By the way: it's been a while since I've done this test, but
I did test Verizon's speed on a blackberry. It was slightly slower than Sprint, and much, much slower than AT&T. Maybe things have improved since then, I don't know.