So....is T-Mobile's Edge supposed to be this abysmally slow/useless?

[GuyInTheBack]

After 2 years of being AT&T's well-lubed bottom bunk I just switched in favor of T-Mobile's $50 a month prepaid unlimited everything plan (Set up was a bit expensive but AT&T is the Britta of cellphone plans). Phone reception and service-wise everything's great.

BUT for an unlimited data plan the "E" is....well, useless. I can't use maps. I can't compulsively refresh my e-mail/facebook/twitter and a simple google search takes forever. By contrast wi-fi flies.

Does my phone/set-up have a particular issue or is it just the innate suckiness of this particular network? Is there anyway to find out?

P.S. I use an unlocked 3G iPhone.

 

[Intell]

EDGE is a slow protocol to start with. Its maximum speed is 236.8-473.6 kbit/s, but with all wireless protocols, real world speeds are less. The problem of speed may be compounded with by using an iPhone 3G.

 

[Applejuiced]

Yes, it's like watching a snail race

 

[eastercat]

You obviously weren't around when the first iPhone came out. It was edge only and it was slow. Of course, I didn't know it was slow and none of my friends thought it was slow either; I was still browsing faster than their blackberries.
There's a reason we warn people, who are tempted by the cheap plans, about edge only surfing.

 

[eawmp1]

Edge is the dial-up of wireless data plans.
Your phone is 3 years old.

As for unlimited everything, you could, on Edge, constantly download and likely not hit the cap of AT&T's smallest data plan. Say hat you will about the various companies' plans, but you get what you pay for.

 

[terraphantm]

Edge is the dial-up of wireless data plans.
Your phone is 3 years old.

As for unlimited everything, you could, on Edge, constantly download and likely not hit the cap of AT&T's smallest data plan. Say hat you will about the various companies' plans, but you get what you pay for.

Actually, even if you were only getting 1 kB/s (edge should be capable of 10-15x that rate), you'd download 2.5GBs in one month if you were to constantly download.

 

[Intell]

Edge is the dial-up of wireless data plans.
Your phone is 3 years old.

EDGE is the DSL of wireless data. GPRS is the dial-up of wireless data.

 

[Spectrum Abuser]

EDGE is the DSL of wireless data. GPRS is the dial-up of wireless data.

This. Edge is technically 2.5G which many people get confused with. 2.5G is actually very usable for every day things and even Pandora runs fine on it. Every couple of songs it will pause for a few seconds but besides that the streaming is constant. Now GPRS is what all the 'smart' phones of 1999-2005 used. I heard stories that GPRS actually struggled with the texting boom of the early 2000's.