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iTeen

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Aug 13, 2007
1,256
0
Washington
Really sorry if this has been posted before, I DID SEARCH.

Anyway, just spotted this over at engadget and thought it was cool, considering a 3G iPhone is due pretty soon.
One of the iPhone's major shortfalls is the fact that it runs on AT&T's aging EDGE network, which, in terms of download speeds, pales in comparison to true 3G networks such as Verizon's EVDO. You ever notice how the ads showing the iPhone's Web capabilities never show the actual loading of an Internet page? That's because it would be embarrassing!

EDGE is capped at 100 kilobits per second, which is about twice the speed of the fastest dial-up connection, though real-life performance is often only about half of that. EVDO, on the other hand, can hit 1.4 megabits per second (with real life-speeds between 500 to 600 kilobits per second), while AT&T's own HSDPA network has a max of 1.8 megabits per second (real life at about 700 to 900 kilobytes per second).

But, it appears AT&T has given EDGE a modest speed boost just in time for iPhone. Our own tests of the network are averaging 170 kilobits per second, while other users are reporting speeds even higher than that. All of this is probably thanks to a rumored project called 'Fine Edge' that was meant to boost EDGE throughput ahead of the iPhone launch. It's almost as if AT&T simply threw a switch and everything got faster, which makes you wonder: What took so long?
Here is the link to the article...
http://www.switched.com/2007/06/29/atandt-boosts-data-speeds-for-iphone/
 

Michael CM1

macrumors 603
Feb 4, 2008
5,681
276
When I did a speed test on my phone a week or so ago, it got about 130kbps. So that speed boost happened a while ago (that article is from June of last year). I think I saw another article about yet another way to boost speed, but nobody knew if it would work on existing iPhones or not.

I think the 3G iPhone will get everybody to start rolling out more coverage in the US. I mean how much does anybody use 3G on other phones?
 

mkrishnan

Moderator emeritus
Jan 9, 2004
29,776
15
Grand Rapids, MI, USA
Yeah, it's okay. It happens. :p

FWIW T-Mobile's EDGE network is at similar speeds now too (I don't know if it was previously capped at 100kbps or not, though).

EDIT: Closed per OP's request.
 
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