EDGE to be phased out?

[Auzburner]

Eventually, once 3G begins to dominate as well as further generations - wouldn't AT&T begin to phase out and get rid of EDGE? And how soon do they normally do this do this with other technologies? Can they force you into a newer generation phone if yours is not compatible because EDGE is somewhat already old.(1st Gen. iPhone in a couple years...) What do you guys think?

 

[Templex]

EDGE is used as a fallback in areas without 3G coverage, so I don't see it going away for a while.

 

[t0mat0]

Eventually, once 3G begins to dominate as well as further generations - wouldn't AT&T begin to phase out and get rid of EDGE? And how soon do they normally do this do this with other technologies? Can they force you into a newer generation phone if yours is not compatible because EDGE is somewhat already old.(1st Gen. iPhone in a couple years...) What do you guys think?

Well, Europe's had 3G for a while, and EDGE is still here Backwards compatability/ fallback capability. Why not have it? Doesn't cost much to keep GPRS & EDGE. Same could be said with HSDPA versus 3G. Phones can fall back to 3G from HSDPA, then fall back to EDGE, and GPRS.

 

[Auzburner]

Cool, interesting... makes sense.

 

[Michael CM1]

I don't know how phone networks work in detail, but AT&T (among others) still offers dial-up Internet access years after DSL and cable broadband became available. EDGE is so much more widespread that I don't see it going anywhere for a long time.

Also, don't forget that a bunch of us will have EDGE-only connections for at least two years and many 3G iPhone users will only have EDGE available. 3G will take years to become as widespread as EDGE is. And to make another wired analogy, I know people who still can't get DSL because of the number of people on it in a location or they're too far out in the boonies.

So to answer thy question, no. EDGE isn't going anywhere. It probably won't go anywhere until we're long into the 4G discussion years from now.

 

[Diode]

I don't see EDGE going away anytime soon.

They finally turned off analog service this year and that was rolled out in the 80's ... so basically EDGE will be around until they turn off the GSM network or the equipment fails and is no longer profitable to fix it.

 

[avaloncourt]

EDGE isn't going anywhere. Verizon is making its money off EV-DO but 1xRTT still exists and their oldest data access, Quick2Net, still exists and that's 14.4kbps speed. Nobody wants to use it but it can still be accessed.

 

[Mikey B]

AT&T's 3G coverage in the States is still quite limited. If they phase out EDGE anytime soon, many people will have a useless iPhone. I feel like by the time 3G is everywhere, we'll all be screaming for the next gen.

 

[Michael CM1]

AT&T's 3G coverage in the States is still quite limited. If they phase out EDGE anytime soon, many people will have a useless iPhone. I feel like by the time 3G is everywhere, we'll all be screaming for the next gen.

Pretty much sums up the whole thing. Only problem is I already see people claiming that the new iPhone will have 3.5G or 3.75G. So basically your theory is screwed because people already think just 3G is too slow. Ah, kids.