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I also had to laugh at the fool who thought EDGE was state of the art and would match 3G. Lol dude if you don't know what you're talking about go do some frickin research. EDGE is a 2.5G add on to GSM and has a real world max output of about 300kbps in the final EDGE deployment that AT&T is rolling out. 3G UMTS HSDPA that AT&T is/has rolled out has a throughput of 7.2Mbps. Now I don't know where you went to school dude, but 200K aint 7.2Mbps. Do some research.

I'm not saying that EDGE is faster in all cases but it isn't as slow as people make it sound. The speed of each is heavily dependent on the amount of network traffic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJTdFTIF2No
 
Verizon is already working on 4G (LTE) with Vodafone which will transition them to GSM, which will be good for their phones.

Any idea when this is said to happen, the transition? The article doesn't mention it.

Hopefully, with 4G GSM, Verizon customers will finally get some good phones right after they are released, where as now, consumers have to wait for the phones to be converted to CDMA.

Ah how enlightening, is that why their newest phones look like they're straight out of the late nineties. I only just started following wireless industry news because of my interest in the iPhone. :D
 
To combat more disinformation. AT&Ts deployment of 3G is neither new (been deployed in major cities for YEARS) nor are they languishing now. They are not deploying 3G now they are deploying 3.5G (HSDPA) and 3.75G (HSUPA). Its a bolt on to their existing 3G networks in areas where they had a previously launched 3G UMTS network. Also they aren't anywhere near languishing behind Verizon in deploying 4G as LTE is designed at its core to be an evolutionary upgrade from an existing UMTS HSDPA network. Because Apple chose not to include 3G in their fancy toy phone at launch means nothing about AT&T as like I said, at launch there were a bunch of 3G phones out and a network.
 
AT&T Inc. is expanding its third-generation wireless broadband service to more than 80 additional cities in the United States throughout the year.

Once this upgrade is completed, San Antonio-based AT&T (NYSE: T) will have third-generation, or 3G, coverage in nearly 350 U.S. markets by the end of 2008, including all of the top 100 cities. AT&T will build out more than 1,500 cell sites.

The company is also planning to complete its High Speed Uplink Packet Access-enabled network by the middle of the year, which will allow laptop users to more quickly send large files via the Internet. This network upgrade also should make it easier for wireless customers to take advantage of new applications.

"Fast wireless broadband is the foundation for a whole range of new and emerging applications that our customers are adopting, including everything from social networking to sending live video and large business files," says Ralph de la Vega, president and CEO of AT&T's wireless unit.

With the expansion of 3G wireless services, AT&T is also establishing a clear path to a 4G network in the future.

AT&T is the nation's largest wireless company based on subscribers.

I wonder what the clear path to 4G means...

There was some reports that go back as far as 2005 that talk about WiMax and LGE (same as Verizon).

http://www.bizjournals.com/sanantonio/stories/2008/02/04/daily25.html?ana=from_rss

http://www.electronista.com/articles/08/01/22/3gpp.finalizes.lte.spec/
 
I wonder what the clear path to 4G means...

There was some reports that go back as far as 2005 that talk about WiMax and LGE (same as Verizon).

http://www.bizjournals.com/sanantonio/stories/2008/02/04/daily25.html?ana=from_rss

http://www.electronista.com/articles/08/01/22/3gpp.finalizes.lte.spec/

It means that LTE was designed to be an economical direct upgrade path for 3G UMTS HSPA networks. Infact AT&T has a much easier upgrade to LTE than Verizon who is converting a CDMA network to LTE.
 
What they didn't mention

What they didn't mention is that at&t will also be expanding its 3rd generation warrantless spying too. Now they can help NSA spy on more war protestors, Democrats, and Ron Paul supporters than ever before!

at&t: Your world. Delivered. To the NSA.
http://www.stopthespying.org/
 
Any idea when this is said to happen, the transition? The article doesn't mention it.



Ah how enlightening, is that why their newest phones look like they're straight out of the late nineties. I only just started following wireless industry news because of my interest in the iPhone. :D

I read somewhere (I can't remember where) that they were planning on transitioning around 2010. I did find out that they are starting trials sometime this year here: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/20cdb8b6-9ead-11dc-b4e4-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1

As for the issue of phones, I had always speculated this as it took them I think around a year to release the Blackberry Pearl for their CDMA network (and it has taken similar lengths of time for other phones including the RAZR).
 
To combat more disinformation. AT&Ts deployment of 3G is neither new (been deployed in major cities for YEARS) nor are they languishing now. They are not deploying 3G now they are deploying 3.5G (HSDPA) and 3.75G (HSUPA). Its a bolt on to their existing 3G networks in areas where they had a previously launched 3G UMTS network. Also they aren't anywhere near languishing behind Verizon in deploying 4G as LTE is designed at its core to be an evolutionary upgrade from an existing UMTS HSDPA network. Because Apple chose not to include 3G in their fancy toy phone at launch means nothing about AT&T as like I said, at launch there were a bunch of 3G phones out and a network.

You need to get a clue. It is not that AT&T didn't have 3G available at the launch of the iPhone. Compare their 3G footprint to that of either Verizon or Sprint. It was and still is a joke. It really doesn't matter if they had 3G available for 10 years if it was only available in a handful of cities. I'm glad that it was available in your city but that doesn't help the majority of Americans.
 
The Xohm service, based on 802.16e WiMAX, will offer users 2 to 4 megabits of speed and significantly lower latency than other high-speed wireless systems.

Tests conducted during a demonstration in Chicago in late September produced results of 3.2 megabits download and 1.5 megabits upload, with 70 millisecond's latency, while stationary, and only slightly worse numbers while moving.

This is considerably in excess of the proven capabilities of other wide-area wireless technologies such as Sprint's own EV-DO Revision A network, as well as the 3G technologies used by AT&T and other providers.
http://www.brighthand.com/default.asp?newsID=13545
Speed tests performed by Sprint representatives at the request of Ars Technica showed system speed to be 3.2 Mbits downstream and 1.5 Mbits upstream with a 70 ms latency while the ship was docked; 2.4 down and 1.4 up with a 99 ms latency while moving. Sprint has described its expected network performance under real world conditions as being 2-4 megabits downstream and 1-2 megs up. The service quality was described as being more similar to cable or DSL Internet than conventional cellular-wireless systems, which have a higher latency.

The carrier has also announced that it expects to make the service available to approximately 70 million people in 22 major cities by the end of 2008, with partner Clearwire covering an additional 30 million in the same time period. The two networks are promised to seamlessly interconnect.

No Sprint contracts will be required to get or keep the service; according to the company's WiMax unit head, Barry West, users will have to pay an unsubsidized price for their hardware, but in return, no contracts or early termination fees will be involved for users who wish to cancel service. Users will also have full choice of what hardware they want to use on the network, ranging from cellular phone style devices to home routers.

Sprint plans a "soft launch" for its Xohm network in the Chicago and Baltimore/Washington D.C. areas by the end of the year, with commercial availability in the first half of 2008.
http://www.brighthand.com/default.asp?newsID=13378
 
It means that LTE was designed to be an economical direct upgrade path for 3G UMTS HSPA networks. Infact AT&T has a much easier upgrade to LTE than Verizon who is converting a CDMA network to LTE.

Well I wonder how long it will take AT&T to convert from 3.75G to 4G, as I haven't heard much talk about it yet. It seems to me that since AT&T is working on expanding 3G now, it will take a while before they start the upgrade to 4G.
 
You need to get a clue. It is not that AT&T didn't have 3G available at the launch of the iPhone. Compare their 3G footprint to that of either Verizon or Sprint. It was and still is a joke. It really doesn't matter if they had 3G available for 10 years if it was only available in a handful of cities. I'm glad that it was available in your city but that doesn't help the majority of Americans.

It doesn't matter if it was fully rolled out or not dude. A 3G phone works on GSM bands as well when it can't find a UMTS network. Do you think all the people who bought the 3G phones that were out at the launch of the iphone had 3G? Ofcourse not. For them it acts like a GSM phone. Apple new damn well the 3G network was expanding and that the rollout would be done by mid 2008.
 
Last I heard Sprint is going to get financial backing.

Talks are back on again. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/detail?blogid=19&entry_id=23819

In the latest scenario, Clearwire and Sprint would form a joint venture, with Intel, Best Buy, Google, or even a foreign telecom company, possibly financing the deal. The endeavor is expensive because the companies will not only have to build a nationwide network, but to be successful, they will also have to create an ecosystem of companies to build chips, create content and market the end product to consumers. Partnerships with companies such as Best Buy and Google would go far in in accomplishing those pieces of the equation.http://www.moconews.net/entry/419-clearwire-and-sprint-may-get-partners-to-fund-wimax-report
 
Now we need a "dongle" that will permit the MBA connect to a 3G network. less time at starbucks, more time in the park or at the beach. :cool:
 
Nice but I don't live in a city and I don't work in a city. Oh well.

I seem to remember that Jobs said that the phone could not go 3G until the new 3G chips had significantly lower battery drain and that he expected the chips some time in early 2008, if I remember this correctly, then it would be possible for a 3G iPhone in the second or 3rd Quarter.

I could have misunderstood.
 
Now we need a "dongle" that will permit the MBA connect to a 3G network. less time at starbucks, more time in the park or at the beach. :cool:

The carries all (ATT, VERIZON, SPRINT) have USB adaptors you can use to connect the MacBook Air to a 3G network... they work on any mac, duhh.
 
Great thread. Lots of good information in here.

What is 4G exactly? Before a couple weeks ago I didn't even know there was "3.5G" or "3.75G"... I thought it was just 3G.

I actually haven't had much experience with 3G until I played around with an LG CU500 that has HSDPA. Latency is a bit better at around 150ms and the download speeds are pretty good. Tethering with bluetooth (limited by bluetooth actually), I got around 600-700 kbps, more than good enough for browsing.
 
I know everybody has been talking up 3G since before the iPhione launch, but . . .

EDGE is fully deployed now and very widely indeed. It is as fast in actual practice as 3G. AT&T is ramping up EDGE bandwidth increases market by market and some day EDGE will itself be twice as fast.

3G is just now being deployed in major markets. Not widely. If you are in a big city and use a phone locally then 3G is an interesting future feature. But iPhone as it exists right now with EDGE is the device of the near-present-and future.

3G does use more power and we may see something akin to an airport card for Mac CPU's that does 802.11, 3G, and EDGE since Macs are a mobile-crippled device as compared to a mere iPhone right now.

3G IS orders of magnitude faster than EDGE. There is no point in arguing about it, really.

A 3G chip might have been consuming more power in 2006 than an non-3G one, but it is now 2008 and technologies move on. Chips have become smaller, faster, and more efficient. For a data-centric device such as the iPhone, a faster downlink can change the way you do alot of things with it.

I'm not saying that EDGE is faster in all cases but it isn't as slow as people make it sound. The speed of each is heavily dependent on the amount of network traffic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJTdFTIF2No

That is because they are two different devices using different rendering engines...etc. You cant do such a comparison and deduce that EDGE is faster than 3G. This is ridicilous.

Show me a video of an iPhone on EDGE and ANOTHER iPhone on 3G, then we can talk.
 
I've read now the first 3 pages here and I am shocked why everbody here thinks only about iphone-usage in the states. hello! there are also people in the rest of the world - and some have 3G! I am from good old Vienna and I have a 3G phone now for nearly 4 years. It's already rather old technology here.... well old but fast.
The stuff Jobs said about battery-life is simply not true. I mean we have 3G smartphones, even more advanced stuff compared to phones sold in the US and the battery-life is absolutly OK (2-3 days, surfing, videostreaming and so on). UMTS needs a little bit more battery but still a company like Apple should find a moderate solution to that problem.

I personally think the 3G phones are the only way to sell the phone here in Europe. People are not willing to pay 500 bucks for old technology (that's why the iphone will not sell well in Japan).
 
I've read now the first 3 pages here and I am shocked why everbody here thinks only about iphone-usage in the states. hello! there are also people in the rest of the world - and some have 3G! I am from good old Vienna and I have a 3G phone now for nearly 4 years. It's already rather old technology here.... well old but fast.
The stuff Jobs said about battery-life is simply not true. I mean we have 3G smartphones, even more advanced stuff compared to phones sold in the US and the battery-life is absolutly OK (2-3 days, surfing, videostreaming and so on). UMTS needs a little bit more battery but still a company like Apple should find a moderate solution to that problem.

I personally think the 3G phones are the only way to sell the phone here in Europe. People are not willing to pay 500 bucks for old technology (that's why the iphone will not sell well in Japan).

Most people in the USA will be happy for the USA, those in France will be happy for their ability to use their 3G current installation. Not many USA people would be excited over it being available elsewhere, LOL.
 
I hope that Montana is one of the states they are planning to expand to! I recently moved here from Chicago and had to cancel AT&T service. I could have unlocked the iPhone and used Chinook Wireless, but their rates are steep for data. I am now using a work-issued Blackberry. Reluctantly.
 
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