<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: QueBert
The phone is EDGE only, isn't EDGE about as slow as dialup? Unlimited 3G is appealing, Unlimited EDGE seems like uhh. Well one review said it took 2 minutes for yahoo.com to come up. Am I wrong about Edge??</end quote></div>
EDGE is about ISDN( 64 + 64)- level iirc (128Kbps) with bursts that aren't much higher....compared with EVDO/HSDPA's ~500-700kbps with bursts of 1Mbps+. Personally, I've been able to hold a consistent 500kbps streaming video to my phone ( EVDO non-REV. A), and been able to successfully stream 128kbps streams using 1xRTT for hours on end without interruption.
On the sprint network, with a Rev. A EVDO card, I have been able to sustain a consistent 1Mbps.
FYI: EVDO falls back to 1xRTT which has a theoretical 144kbps...
it's a shame that they must cripple it like that. sure one can rely on WIFI hotspots in places like san fran, but what about everywhere else, such as the highway or the train for example, where you will have to depend on nothing BUT the EDGE network?
This is AT&T we are talking about here too; a company who's CEO is quoted as saying that "6Mbps" is all we need. Verizon's FIOS subscription numbers are destroying any expectations AT&T puts out there on the home broadband market, and it looks like a lack of new-technology roll outs in all markets that they cover are preventing them from supporting what could be a massive addition to their subscriber base with broadband and IPTV....and in this case, up to 3mill+ additional HSDPA cell customers
The only rationality behind this is a possible lack of infrastructure, as stated above, and the ability to provide a controlled user-experience.
With EVDO, or in AT&T's case, HSDPA, bandwidth usage would EXPLODE as people setup random services such as ORB or streamed some sort of online radio station such as pandora/shoutcast. Because of Safari's capabilities, and assuming that a lot of people bite on the iphone, it would create a HUGE surge in traffic that perhaps carriers would NOT be able to deal with.
Just imaging , in ONE or TWO DAYS , adding 3million+ subscribers on your network, flooding the network with .5Mbps each at times when checking emails etc.
Using, and rather, limiting their subscriber base to a more manageable service, they can deliver content their way, and guarantee network uptime
crazy numbers if we assume 3million additional subscribers....
we are talking about an additional 384Gb/s (48GB/s) of addition theoretical peak traffic using EDGE on a CELL network.
we are talking about an additional 3Tb/s (375GB/s) of addition theoretical peak traffic using HSDPA on a CELL network.
Truly theoretical numbers, but consider half that much, or 1/8th that much..still astronomical requirements....
basically, their lack of planning and lack of insight into the market will put many people off of a truly interesting product due to what wil be seen as a "lack of execution"
or it could just be that Apple is cheap/playing it safe and they are the ones behind the EDGE limitation....