Search:  

 
 
   News
newer
How bad is AT&T EDGE iPhone speed anyway?
Results so far
(old news - 04:33PM Wednesday Jul 11 2007)
tags: wireless · AT&T
Below are the results from our trivial speed tester so far (see our earlier iPhone Speed Test article). The simple average of download speed readings is currently about 123kbit. There are two popular peaks, one just below this figure and one at just over 150kbit. No iPhone has managed more than 210kbit, yet. There is quite a long tail below 100kbit, perhaps due to EDGE congestion or marginal signal levels?

10- 20:
20- 30:xx
30- 40:xxxx
40- 50:
50- 60:xxxxx
60- 70:
70- 80:xx
80- 90:xxxxxxx
90-100:xxxxxxx
100-110:xxxxxxxxxx
110-120:xxxx
120-130:xxxxxx <--- average
130-140:xxxxx
140-150:xxxxxxxx
150-160:xxxxxxxxxxx
160-170:xxxxxxxx
170-180:xxxxxxx
180-190:xxxxxx
190-200:xxx
200-210:x
210-220:

All this data is from iPhones connected to the AT&T EDGE netblock, running our AJAX speedtest, which currently does 5 simultaneous downloads of a 100kb file. The same iPhone, speedtest and safari browser can get multi-megabit speed readings when on Wi-Fi.

Related:
  1. AT&T Source Provides iPhone Glitch Technical Specifics
  2. Thursday Morning Links
  3. Apple: Who Believes Our Ads Anyway?
  4. AT&T Femtocells in 2009
  5. AT&T To Pay Customers $2.63 Million Over Misleading Rebates
  6. AT&T Talks To Us About iPhone Hiccups, Extends Olive Branch
  7. Criticism Continues Over AT&T's Wireless Network
  8. Analyst: Apple Will Stick With AT&T Exclusivity
Forums » How bad is AT&T EDGE iPhone speed anyway?
view: topics flat text 
Post a:

ColorBASIC
8-bit Fun
Premium
join:2006-12-29
Corona, CA

Not horrible

For me 3G isn't a deal breaker because 3G availability is so limited. I don't even have 3G access here in Huntington Beach in SoCal and you would think Orange County would have complete coverage.

But its great to be in the middle of nowhere and still have EDGE coverage.
--
Macintosh Users Group Serving the Inland Empire

en102
Canadian, eh?

join:2001-01-26
Valencia, CA
·RoadRunner Cable
·DSL EXTREME

Re: Not horrible

Were they all iPhones that this test ?

Huntington Beach should get 3G soon, as some of the San Fernando Valley now has 3G, Santa Clarita / Canyon Country now has 3G.

Word has it that So-Cal (L.A. anyways) should be going through a launch in August.
--
Canada = Hollywood North

justin
Australian
join:1999-05-28
Brooklyn, NY

Re: Not horrible

Yes they are all iPhones and all on EDGE. There was one recording at 5xx kbit perhaps on edge, but it was a windows CE device!
Cogdis

join:2007-03-26
Floral Park, NY

Re: Not horrible

Maybe that was me. I used the test on my Sprint 6700 the other day. Worked perfectly.
CMoore2004
Premium
join:2003-02-06
Jonesville, MI

So, it's OK that it's not even capable of high speeds because if it were, it'd still be hindered by a pathetic provider?

By the way, Sprint has EVDO in both Corona and Huntington Beach.
--
Sprint Mobile Broadband PX-500 | Windows XP MCE SP2 | Mobile AMD Athlon 64 4000+ | 1.5GB RAM | ATI Mobile Radeon X600 128MB | 120GB HDD
cwire

join:2007-06-07
Bedford, KY

Re: Not horrible

pathetic provider eh??
once you get away from Louisville, ky, or an interstate around hear you might as well chuck the sprint phone out the window, but cingular picks up everywhere. maybe that's the reason sprint/nextel is tanking.
Time4aNAP
Premium
join:2007-04-09
Des Plaines, IL

Re: Not horrible

said by cwire See Profile :

once [sic] you get away from Louisville, ky [sic], or an interstate around hear [sic] you might as well chuck the sprint [sic] phone out the window, but cingular [sic] picks up everywhere.
One corner of rural America can hardly speak for the system as a whole. I also doubt that you've been "everywhere" testing AT&T's service availability. In both cases, you're exaggerating in favor of a prejudice, not stating fact. The unsubstantiated rumor about Sprint/Nextel "tanking", which isn't relevant to the topic, indicates a degree of desperation. You wouldn't by any chance be a stock speculator making a lame attempt to manipulate the market, would you?

The fact is that EV-DO (used by Sprint) is superior to EDGE (used in places by the parts of AT&T's network that are GSM), both in theory and in practice.
bignate

join:2005-12-05
Austin, TX

Re: Not horrible

of course EVDO is better than EDGE...they are not Competitors.

EVDO's 3G Competitor from ATT is their HSDPA network which is comparable.

EDGE is ATT's secondary data connection for when you cant get 3G(for 3G phones at least).

when i am connected sure i prefer to be on the 3G network getting 700k but it is nice to know that if i cant get that i can still always use the backup...EDGE...i have never been completely out of data service with ATT.

kyler13
Is your fiber grounded?

join:2006-12-12
Arnold, MD

Re: Not horrible

Yes, but EVDO is more widespread the HSDPA, so the CDMA providers are a step ahead of the GSM guys. I think EDGE is more on par with 1xRTT, though EDGE is clearly faster.

kamm

join:2001-02-14
Brooklyn, NY

1 edit

Re: Not horrible

...

kamm

join:2001-02-14
Brooklyn, NY
·T-Mobile US

said by kyler13 See Profile :

Yes, but EVDO is more widespread the HSDPA, so the CDMA providers are a step ahead of the GSM guys. I think EDGE is more on par with 1xRTT, though EDGE is clearly faster.
:D If I wouldn't know you're talking about US_only, I would call this post h-i-l-a-r-i-o-u-s.
--
Ulmo

join:2005-09-22
San Jose, CA
·Comcast
·SONIC.NET

Re: Not horrible

said by kamm See Profile :

said by kyler13 See Profile :

Yes, but EVDO is more widespread the HSDPA, so the CDMA providers are a step ahead of the GSM guys. I think EDGE is more on par with 1xRTT, though EDGE is clearly faster.
:D If I wouldn't know you're talking about US_only, I would call this post h-i-l-a-r-i-o-u-s.
What do distant aliens have to do with this conversation? Sheesh! It's about Deathstar, not some foreign CEO's consideration someplace. We don't travel thousands of miles every day. We pretty much stay within our own thousand or so mile radius, probably within a few hundred miles from home on an average week. That's not Mexico, nor Canada for most of us, and nowhere near wherever you're talking about.
Time4aNAP
Premium
join:2007-04-09
Des Plaines, IL

said by bignate See Profile :

of course EVDO is better than EDGE...they are not Competitors.
That might be true, but they're obviously competitors. Using a word as a proper noun to signify some unstated meaning does nothing to alter the underlying facts, And the fact is that I can choose between several competing services.

when i am connected sure i prefer to be on the 3G network getting 700k but it is nice to know that if i cant get that i can still always use the backup...EDGE...i have never been completely out of data service with ATT [sic].
So what?

I prefer to be on Sprint's EV-DO whenever I can (at twice your data rate), and can fall back to 1xRTT or even dial-up. What's your point? Surely you weren't trying to make the false claim that AT&T's offering is somehow superior!

The fact of the matter is that no wireless service works everywhere. The Faraday cages in some of my data centers don't discriminate between carriers. And no amount of marketing hype will convince them to pass one vendor's signal. So if you "have never been completely out of data service with ATT", that's only because you're not very mobile. That's not an accomplishment.
--
Dead webcasters don't make cents.
CMoore2004
Premium
join:2003-02-06
Jonesville, MI

Re: Not horrible

I had Cingular a while, and around here Centennial is completely EDGE capable, but ATT gets only GPRS data in certain places.

I only switched to Sprint after giving Cingular a very fair chance.

Sprint's customer service DOES suck. 100% true. I tried changing the caller ID name on one of my lines, and they changed the account owner name. Apparently, I have to visit a store to change it back. However, my phones always work and I'm satisfied with that. My data card gets better speeds than Cingular pretty much everywhere I travel. Even the 1xRTT beat the hell out of the EDGE speeds in my area.
--
Sprint Mobile Broadband PX-500 | Windows XP MCE SP2 | Mobile AMD Athlon 64 4000+ | 1.5GB RAM | ATI Mobile Radeon X600 128MB | 120GB HDD
cwire

join:2007-06-07
Bedford, KY
yes, you're right nappy, i made up all the stories about sprint/nextels customers leaving in droves...i believe you must be the one who is trying to push up stock prices buddy.
Time4aNAP
Premium
join:2007-04-09
Des Plaines, IL

Re: Not horrible

said by cwire See Profile :

i [sic] made up all the stories about sprint/nextels [sic] customers leaving in droves...
That's kind of obvious, wouldn't you say? It's not like your claim is being reported in the news or anything.

i [sic] believe you must be the one who is trying to push up stock prices buddy [sic].
No, you don't. You just can't find any fault in what I said.

But I'm not the one spreading malicious rumors, referring to companies by their ticker symbols or using trader jargon. You are.

Try earning an honest living some time.
--
Dead webcasters don't make cents.
TheSolomon

join:2001-11-13
Columbus, OH

Re: Not horrible

You may want to reconsider your usage of the term sic.

Sic (from the Latin "sicut," which means 'just as that') is used to indicate direct quoting; your usage is fine in that regard. But it is used when a phrase may contain archaic or uncommon usage, or when the quote contains grammatical or other errors that have not been corrected in the quoted passage.

An appropriate usage would be as follows: "It would be best if you learnt [sic] how to properly use the term 'sic.'" This is valid, because "learnt" is an uncommon past-tense of the word "learned."

Sic is not an HTML tag, so you do not need to lead and follow with it. And using sic just to indicate a quoted passage is totally inappropriate, especially since (aside from the casual language), there isn't any part of his speech that would make us question whether you made an error in quotation. Also, your quotations are already tab-offset with a different background color. Not only is your usage of sic inappropriate, it's also redundant.

It's fine that you know Latin, and even better that you have heard of (or seen) sic in quoted texts. But throwing it around incorrectly makes you look foolish, and even communicates an air of "I'm better than you."

said by Time4aNAP See Profile :

said by cwire See Profile :

i [sic] made up all the stories about sprint/nextels [sic] customers leaving in droves...
That's kind of obvious, wouldn't you say? It's not like your claim is being reported in the news or anything.

i [sic] believe you must be the one who is trying to push up stock prices buddy [sic].
No, you don't. You just can't find any fault in what I said.

But I'm not the one spreading malicious rumors, referring to companies by their ticker symbols or using trader jargon. You are.

Try earning an honest living some time.
TheSolomon

join:2001-11-13
Columbus, OH

Re: Not horrible

Whoops, I made a mistake in my previous post. What a perfect time for the proper use of sic!

"This is valid, because 'learnt' is an uncommon past-tense of the word 'learned' [sic]."

That sentence is wrong and somewhat redundant. I should have said: "This is valid, because 'learnt' is an uncommon past-tense of the word 'learn.'"

Grammar is fun!

kamm

join:2001-02-14
Brooklyn, NY
·T-Mobile US

said by Time4aNAP See Profile :

said by cwire See Profile :

once [sic] you get away from Louisville, ky [sic], or an interstate around hear [sic] you might as well chuck the sprint [sic] phone out the window, but cingular [sic] picks up everywhere.
One corner of rural America can hardly speak for the system as a whole. I also doubt that you've been "everywhere" testing AT&T's service availability. In both cases, you're exaggerating in favor of a prejudice, not stating fact. The unsubstantiated rumor about Sprint/Nextel "tanking", which isn't relevant to the topic, indicates a degree of desperation. You wouldn't by any chance be a stock speculator making a lame attempt to manipulate the market, would you?

The fact is that EV-DO (used by Sprint) is superior to EDGE (used in places by the parts of AT&T's network that are GSM), both in theory and in practice.
And they both suck big time compared to HSDPA, used in most bigger cities and rest of the world (ie most part of the 400-500M EU).
--
CMoore2004
Premium
join:2003-02-06
Jonesville, MI

Re: Not horrible

How does it suck? Does it suck in the way that EVDO has much better coverage in the US? Or is it that the upload speeds are better? I've tried HSDPA while going down the road in a few bigger cities and wasn't impressed at all. I can drive all the way from my house to Flint and not lose my EVDO signal.
--
Charter 5M | Windows XP MCE SP2 | Mobile AMD Athlon 64 4000+ | 1.5GB RAM | ATI Mobile Radeon X600 128MB | 120GB HDD

tc1uscg

join:2005-03-09
Saint Clair Shores, MI


1 edit
said by cwire See Profile :

pathetic provider eh??
once you get away from Louisville, ky, or an interstate around hear you might as well chuck the sprint phone out the window, but cingular picks up everywhere. maybe that's the reason sprint/nextel is tanking.
Wow.. you must be having some bad luck. I recently did a road trip from Detroit to Glasgow (yes, traveled thru Louisville, 71 all the way to I-65, didn't take the bypass). My EVDO card worked great every time I used it and it was between major cities (Detroit-Toledo, Toledo-Dayton, Dayton-Cin, Cin-Louisville, Louisville-Glasgow) and my phone never lost service, the wife and 2 kids phones never lost service, at least during the times we used them and I swear, the kids must have talked half the trip (car cords) . Wife had hers on the dash and the kids were yakking away outside of L-ville, E-town and Cave City (not to mention Cin city OH.. Used the aircard about 20 miles out from Louisville to check on traffic and weather for the rest of the trip. So to me mate.. your just talking smack. Maybe you got the service confused with Verizon?
cwire

join:2007-06-07
Bedford, KY

Re: Not horrible

you stayed on the interstate the whole time huh?? that's what i said, once you get away from an interstate or city, you have no coverage.

tc1uscg

join:2005-03-09
Saint Clair Shores, MI

Re: Not horrible

said by cwire See Profile :

you stayed on the interstate the whole time huh?? that's what i said, once you get away from an interstate or city, you have no coverage.
Considering the fact that the antena array if true omni directional will give you a few miles of coverage off the hwy, I don't think deadzones is a issue. Bet if you crawl down in a manhole in the middle of the city, you might find it hard to get a edge signal too.

fireflier
Coffee. . .Need Coffee
Premium
join:2001-05-25
Limbo
·Skype

Next time you go down that way and you're going through Cave City, take the road back to Mammoth Cave National Park. I assume it's because it's a National Park and they don't allow commercial equipment installation but there is ZERO ATT/Cingular coverage in the park area. That's one of the few places I've stumbled on where even EDGE doesn't function.

Wondering if anyone with another cell service has had any luck in that area?
--
Wishes: When you wish upon a falling star, your dreams can come true. Unless it's really a meteorite hurtling to the Earth which will destroy all life. Then you're pretty much hosed no matter what you wish for. Unless it's death by meteor. --despair.com
cwire

join:2007-06-07
Bedford, KY

Re: Not horrible

i believe bluegrass cellular covers that area, may want to check into it.

tc1uscg

join:2005-03-09
Saint Clair Shores, MI

said by fireflier See Profile :

Next time you go down that way and you're going through Cave City, take the road back to Mammoth Cave National Park. I assume it's because it's a National Park and they don't allow commercial equipment installation but there is ZERO ATT/Cingular coverage in the park area. That's one of the few places I've stumbled on where even EDGE doesn't function.

Wondering if anyone with another cell service has had any luck in that area?
I did visit MC while we were there. We walked down to the entrance (been in it many times before) just so the daughter could take some pictures. No tours that day. They had lost power. Sprint just entered a roaming agreement with bluegrass (which cwire is correct) covers that area. To my insider info, it's data roaming too. However, I did roam (digital) a few times while at the park but never no service on the phone. ALLTEL and BG to my knowledge are the big carriers in that area. Verizon has roaming agreements too in that area (looking at their map, eastern ky is mostly roaming except Louisville). US Cellular looks to have the whole area covered as roaming also. As you well know, there are lots of mom and pop cell companies with a few towers and money to spend for covering the back woods. Remember, phones do have a big part to play in how well your reception is. My SCP7500 works way better then my sons A900 samsung but in my experience, Sanyo phones seem to do better in reception then other high end phones.

michaelalanjones

@bellsouth.net
I live in rural Waddy, KY, and I can still get Edge/GPRS/voice on my AT&T phone. But only on one corner of my house.

ColorBASIC
8-bit Fun
Premium
join:2006-12-29
Corona, CA

said by CMoore2004 See Profile :

So, it's OK that it's not even capable of high speeds because if it were, it'd still be hindered by a pathetic provider?

By the way, Sprint has EVDO in both Corona and Huntington Beach.
Yeah but Sprint sucks ass and like the Hudson Valley, their claims of coverage are very exaggerated. Sprint coverage here is a joke and they lie about coverage just to make sales.
--
Macintosh Users Group Serving the Inland Empire

tc1uscg

join:2005-03-09
Saint Clair Shores, MI

Re: Not horrible

said by ColorBASIC See Profile :

said by CMoore2004 See Profile :

So, it's OK that it's not even capable of high speeds because if it were, it'd still be hindered by a pathetic provider?

By the way, Sprint has EVDO in both Corona and Huntington Beach.
Yeah but Sprint sucks ass and like the Hudson Valley, their claims of coverage are very exaggerated. Sprint coverage here is a joke and they lie about coverage just to make sales.
Guy.. you need to chill the F out. If Sprint or anyone was/is LYING about coverage, Arnold (or some other I'm going to rule your life california group) would be on them faster then you can mumble "I'll be back".. and making them stop "false advertising". We all know your a iPhone/Apple fanboy so no need to violate that old saying.. "Sometimes it's better to sit there and look like a fool then open your mouth and prove you are one". I'm glad AT&T and iPhone and EDGE works for you. Just like some don't mind driving in the slow lane. Others like a little excitement and drive faster. It's ok. I'm not picking on California, 2 of my 3 kids were born there . But here's a link to help you with your problems.

»www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNT1Y2sLLKU

ColorBASIC
8-bit Fun
Premium
join:2006-12-29
Corona, CA


4 edits

Re: Not horrible

said by tc1uscg See Profile :

Sometimes it's better to sit there and look like a fool then open your mouth and prove you are one".
Pot, meet kettle. Uh, whether I am on my Macs or on my PCs...Sprint still sucks and lies about their coverage area. I was a Sprint subscriber for 2 years and I've been with Nextel (before they were with Sprint), T-Mobile and now I'm with both Verizon and AT&T and Sprint was BY FAR the worst provider. Their customer service sucked, their nationwide coverage sucked...everything about them sucked.

RTFP guy...3G is not a deal breaker FOR ME. I have a 3G/EDGE phone (Treo 750) and find I'm hardly ever in a 3G service area. I'm not in my office, in my home or when I travel anywhere but the largest cities. So for me, 3G is an afterthought because I never get to use it. My Verizon EVDO service (Treo 700W) is nearly as bad in terms of coverage when I'm traveling (although I do get EVDO service in Orange County). EDGE on the other hand while not the fastest thing on the planet, it gets the job done virtually everywhere I need it done.

Do yourself a favor and actually READ the posts before replying to them.

And yes, California does suck.
--
Macintosh Users Group Serving the Inland Empire

kamm

join:2001-02-14
Brooklyn, NY
·T-Mobile US

said by tc1uscg See Profile :

said by ColorBASIC See Profile :

said by CMoore2004 See Profile :

So, it's OK that it's not even capable of high speeds because if it were, it'd still be hindered by a pathetic provider?

By the way, Sprint has EVDO in both Corona and Huntington Beach.
Yeah but Sprint sucks ass and like the Hudson Valley, their claims of coverage are very exaggerated. Sprint coverage here is a joke and they lie about coverage just to make sales.
Guy.. you need to chill the F out. If Sprint or anyone was/is LYING about coverage, Arnold (or some other I'm going to rule your life california group) would be on them faster then you can mumble "I'll be back".. and making them stop "false advertising". We all know your a iPhone/Apple fanboy so no need to violate that old saying.. "Sometimes it's better to sit there and look like a fool then open your mouth and prove you are one". I'm glad AT&T and iPhone and EDGE works for you. Just like some don't mind driving in the slow lane. Others like a little excitement and drive faster. It's ok. I'm not picking on California, 2 of my 3 kids were born there . But here's a link to help you with your problems.

(youtube clip)

Sprint is a f'in joke, I don't \believe anyone buys into their BS ads - they hardly work inside bigger buildings in NYC, let alone EVDO... a crap, seriously.
--
ignatiuskc

join:2006-02-13
00000

When is the last time you've used Sprint? They've added CDMA to thousand of Nextel sites in the last year. Most Sprint users on evdoforums.com say that Sprint's maps are actually too conservative, that EVDO is in many places not yet on the maps.

Sprint and Verizon cover about 210m pops with EVDO and Sprint also roams on Alltel EVDO. I don't think HSDPA is yet half that.

ColorBASIC
8-bit Fun
Premium
join:2006-12-29
Corona, CA

Re: Not horrible

said by ignatiuskc See Profile :

When is the last time you've used Sprint?
It's been 18 months, but my friends who still have Sprint complain of the same "no coverage" problems I had.
--
Macintosh Users Group Serving the Inland Empire

robbob340
K.U. Sweet 16
Premium
join:2001-02-15
Wichita, KS

Yes even better to be in the middle of nowhere and have 2 options for EVDO, and just plain ol gprs for gsm.
--
Join #dslr unofficial chat!
RadioDoc
58ef2c0
Premium,ExMod 2000-03
join:2000-05-11
·AT&T Midwest

Let me tell you...going from 3G in Chicago to EDGE in Denver today was painful. Very painful. Once you have 3G (I clocked over 600 kbps last night) it's immediately addictive to have that available on your laptop tethered to a cell phone.
--
Toolmaster of La Grange.

ColorBASIC
8-bit Fun
Premium
join:2006-12-29
Corona, CA

Re: Not horrible

said by RadioDoc See Profile :

Let me tell you...going from 3G in Chicago to EDGE in Denver today was painful. Very painful. Once you have 3G (I clocked over 600 kbps last night) it's immediately addictive to have that available on your laptop tethered to a cell phone.
Until a provider like Verizon cancels the subscriber for actually USING the 3G service after having sold them on it being "unlimited".

Between lame TOS/AUPs and getting no coverage, 3G is very overrated IMO.
--
Macintosh Users Group Serving the Inland Empire
RadioDoc
58ef2c0
Premium,ExMod 2000-03
join:2000-05-11

1 edit

Re: Not horrible

Irrelevant to this discussion. Sorry. For high speed access away from WiFi the iPhone is shit.
--
Toolmaster of La Grange.

ColorBASIC
8-bit Fun
Premium
join:2006-12-29
Corona, CA


1 edit

Re: Not horrible

said by RadioDoc See Profile :

Irrelevant to this discussion. Sorry. For high speed access away from WiFi the iPhone is shit.
IMO, for high speed access away from anywhere but the largest cities, 3G is shit. I find little point in having 3G in my Treo750 when I can never get service.
--
Macintosh Users Group Serving the Inland Empire

tc1uscg

join:2005-03-09
Saint Clair Shores, MI

said by ColorBASIC See Profile :

For me 3G isn't a deal breaker because 3G availability is so limited. I don't even have 3G access here in Huntington Beach in SoCal and you would think Orange County would have complete coverage.

But its great to be in the middle of nowhere and still have EDGE coverage.
That's how they should work. Drop down to the next kind of network when the higher one isn't there.. EVDO rev a, then EVDO, then Vision. At least that's how my eqp works. What is nice if your provider has roaming agreements with someone and data is part of the package..

tekmunki
Tekmunki
Premium
join:2001-12-06
Lake City, FL
clubs:
·NuVox Communications

Very cool data collection.

Awesome job! Nice investigative work.

Might be a bit of trouble, but I would love to see how the other networks measure up- Mind running the same report on Sprint/Nextel, Verizon, and T-Mobile networks?
--
TekMunki
"There are 10 types of people in this world, those who understand binary and those who don't."

www.tekmunki.com

See 9 replies to this post

LesMerlin

@verizon.net

thumbs down from:
StreetSpirit See Profile

Useless

The WAP speed test is useless for a device as sophisticated as the iPhone.

Would you run the WAP test on your Macintosh?
CMoore2004
Premium
join:2003-02-06
Jonesville, MI

Re: Useless

Only if I ran Cat5 to the dumpster.
Time4aNAP
Premium
join:2007-04-09
Des Plaines, IL

said by LesMerlin :

The WAP speed test is useless for a device as sophisticated as the iPhone.
If the iPhone is really so sophisticated then why can't it figure out what's going on, and make the necessary corrections?
BbrewerG
Premium
join:2004-06-16
New York, NY
·New York Connect

i don't get it

why is at&t getting all the bad press when it comes to poor speeds... Apple is the one who built this thing with only EDGE capabilities. i still don't understand why they couldn't just use a HSDPA/UMTS radio that was capable of dialing back to EDGE if 3G isn't available. hell, the V3xx has this and they give those away for free.
--

I hide all anonymous posts, so if you want me to see your post(s)... get an account.

See 7 replies to this post

StreetSpirit
Premium
join:2002-08-13
Roslyn, NY

Sweet

Excellent article - hats off!

XBL2009
------

join:2001-01-03
Chicago, IL
·AT&T Midwest


2 edits

Those are some nice graphics

I can't wait to print them on my laser printer.

10- 20:
20- 30:xx
30- 40:xxxx
40- 50:
50- 60:xxxxx
60- 70:
70- 80:xx
80- 90:xxxxxxx
90-100:xxxxxxx
100-110:xxxxxxxxxx
110-120:xxxx
120-130:xxxxxx --

PS: The iphone is the biggest waste of money. It's not a good PDA and it's not a very good phone. Only thing is the ipod feature which could be bought for a lot less.

en102
Canadian, eh?

join:2001-01-26
Valencia, CA

Re: Those are some nice graphics

I could buy a decent laptop for $600, and not have to pay for 2 year service agreement.

ptrowski
Got Helix?
Premium
join:2005-03-14
Putnam, CT
clubs:

Bring on the fanboys....

Who will of course say "It's not a big deal, I don't need the faster speeds. It's still the best thing since oral sex".

No one "needs" 3g until they try it and then go back to Edge.
wierdo

join:2001-02-16
Tulsa, OK
·Future Nine Corpor..
·Teliax VOIP

Re: Bring on the fanboys....

I don't have an iPhone, but I do have an EDGE phone and my laptop has a built-in HSDPA card.

The only problem with EDGE is the latency. If it were sub-200ms like UMTS is (EDGE is 500-600ms on an active connection, and higher if it goes to sleep), it would be fine. SSH is a real pain over EDGE thanks to that. Web browsing is fine on sites that support HTTP pipelining, as that feature eliminates many round trips from each request. Sites that don't are slower than molasses, since it takes two round trips just to open the TCP connection, then another to send the HTTP request, and it does that for each element of the page.

Nokia's E90 is multislot class 32, so supports a theoretical maximum of 300Kbps download speed. Given that I see around 200 pretty regularly on my E62, I suspect that it would hit 250 pretty regularly. Not too shabby, but the latency is still a killer.

fcisler
Premium
join:2004-06-14
Riverhead, NY

Fix the tests!

Now, Justin, if you could just fix this bug:

»Re: textmode - bugs reports and suggestions topic

I'd take the mobile speed tests with more than a grain of salt. I know you have plenty of other things to do, and i'm not bashing you - but anything under myvzw.com domain (on /mspeed only) could be AT&T, verizon or alltel - depending on the configuration of your AT&T device.

atuarre
Here come the drums
Premium
join:2004-02-14
Lake Charles, LA
clubs:

RE

EDGE is pathetic on the iPhone. I use WiFi more than I use EDGE when using it. I wish 3G would have been incorporated into it but I am scared to think of what the size of the 3G model would be, and the expected battery life. The battery life sucks already, imagine what using 3G would do it.
netnerd

join:2007-04-14
Oakland, CA


1 edit

Re: RE

said by atuarre See Profile :

I wish 3G would have been incorporated into it but I am scared to think of what the size of the 3G model would be, and the expected battery life. The battery life sucks already, imagine what using 3G would do it.
Just becasue Steve said it, so it must be true? is the 3G razr any bigger then the EDGE razr? is the EDGE 8125 any bigger then 3G 8525? battery sucks because it' on 3G? every Verizon phones is on 3G/EVDO, i guess all their phones sucks (on battery)
bignate

join:2005-12-05
Austin, TX

jobs choice

according to an interview with steve job the 3G was left out in favor of battery life and weight/size and he claimed that the wifi made up for this lack...

personally if i am using a wireless device i dont want to tied down to a hotspot. what is the point of a mobile device if i cant be mobile and get the speeds i want...
netnerd

join:2007-04-14
Oakland, CA

Re: jobs choice

said by bignate See Profile :

according to an interview with steve job the 3G was left out in favor of battery life and weight/size and he claimed that the wifi made up for this lack...

personally if i am using a wireless device i dont want to tied down to a hotspot. what is the point of a mobile device if i cant be mobile and get the speeds i want...
does he think we all idiot or something? 3G was left out in favor of battery?? and they recommend/encourage you to use Wifi where avail? Wifi uses much more power then 3G!
ignatiuskc

join:2006-02-13
00000


1 edit

dslreports mspeed results

»/mspeed?domains=1

Network Kbps Samples Latency

area2.spcsdns.net 528 317 0.61
area3.spcsdns.net 495.2 815 0.57
area1.spcsdns.net 463.4 1212 0.64
area4.spcsdns.net 441.5 640 0.76
area5.spcsdns.net 432.4 372 0.62
area7.spcsdns.net 376.8 757 0.79
mycingular.net 368.7 8087 0.69
myvzw.com 268.2 4356 0.92
spcsdns.net 180.4 1700 1.06

These are for phones. Sprint splits out by area and also split 1xRTT and Treo phones (Blazer has poor performance). Cingular's number went down recently with iPhone release. Verizon must have a lot of 1xRTT/Treo phones out there or is having performance issues with EVDO.

BTW, dslreports has poor latency results. It shows over 400ms for me yet if I ping google.com, it's only about 100-130ms.

wwdubbia

join:2002-06-03
Clinton, NY

1 edit

What about other network results?

Can you post other carriers/networks as a comparison?

I for one, would like to see Sprint's EVDO vs. Verizon's.

N/M... I found this info:

»/mspeed?domains=1
ignatiuskc

join:2006-02-13
00000


1 edit

Re: What about other network results?

See
»www.evdomaps.com

And these...
»/archive/spcsdns.net Sprint
»/archive/mycingular.net ATT
»/archive/myvzw.com VZW

Unfortunately, there are some problems with the flash based test that show some results higher than they should be. Only look at the results that show a domain (java based). The results w/out a domain are flash-based and are not accurate at times.

On average, Sprint has been the fastest. Probably because they have more towers and a better user per tower ratio.

meister_sd
Premium
join:2006-01-29
La Mesa, CA

Well....

For me, I have 5 iPhones to test here in San Diego, CA and the Edge connection absolutely sux. The speeds are horribly slow. I even tried to connect to two different Exchange servers via OWA and couldn't get past the login screen.

The first day we had the phones, I couldn't get attachments but now they come through. I tried PDF, DOC, JPG and XLS. Excel is the only one that didn't work. It took a couple of days for this to work.

My guess is that things will improve quickly as they see what needs are getting hit on their network.

So far, after the initial BS with activation, the Edge connection is my biggest complaint. I'd like to see more programs available such as a PDF writer. The other thing I didn't get working (maybe not available) is to be able to create folders under the inbox like you can in Outlook and Mail so you can categorize incoming email.

iBLoStBoY

join:2002-11-29
Carson, CA

Re: Well....

I've driven to San diego, Mission Viego, and Dana Point using GPS on my Cell, seem to get EVDO coverage while driving to those places and while there. Been to Dallas a few times used my GPS Once i was there - EVDO works great!

bobblack

@swbell.net

Sprint Service at their own headquarters

While driving through Sprint's national corporate headquarters here in KC there are places you can't even get service on their network.

How pathetic is that?
Forums » How bad is AT&T EDGE iPhone speed anyway?


Wednesday, 25-Nov 19:22:31 Terms of Use | Privacy Policy | Hosting by www.nac.net - DSL,Hosting & Co-lo | feedback | contact
over 10 years online! © 1999-2009 dslreports.com.