deftdrummer1
02-09-2008, 05:46 AM
so like many before me I have come to the conclusion that AT&T is ripping us off. Here we are with one of the best phones in the world and high speed data transmission is rebuked from us. Is it right that we pay $20 manditorily for garbage service? Sure with edge you can check gmail and the ilounge forums, but what are we really getting for our money? Unlimited crappiness? It just doesnt seem right, when I'm in dire need to be productive on the web edge just doesnt cut it. I can't wait until the next iPhone comes out.
jhollington
02-09-2008, 09:29 AM
Well, EDGE coverage in AT&T's world is still extremely limited, so part of the logic may have been that there's no point in increasing the build costs for the device to add a feature that a relatively small percentage of the subscriber base will be able to take advantage of.
From what I've observed, HSDPA (3G) has an increased drain on battery life as well, so that may have also been a consideration.
The other problem with EDGE that most people don't realize is that "saturation" factors into the equation.... I've had times when I've had extremely good EDGE speeds (even enough to watch small YouTube videos), and other times when I couldn't even load a basic text web page (ie, the morning of the MacWorld Keynote, which considering the thousands of iPhones that were probably talking to a single tower was not all that surprising).
The problem with this is that HSDPA is going to suffer from the same limitations. Everybody hails it as the holy grail of wireless Internet performance, and with the limited number of HSDPA users running around today, it really does work quite well. However, as soon as there are as many HSDPA subscribers as EDGE subscribers, it will run the risk of being bogged down severely unless AT&T can build enough towers and enough back-end infrastructure to keep up, and in my experience, most cellular providers lag behind in these sorts of upgrades because they cost significant amounts of money.