“An AT&T employee who works on Operations tells us that the carrier ordered a last-minute beefing up of its EDGE throughput, latency and coverage in anticipation of the iPhone. The operation, internally referenced as ‘Fine Edge’ will continue until June 15th, and has been going on for as many as 6 weeks,” Briam Lam reports for Gizmodo.
Lam reports, “Before ‘Fine EDGE’ and the iPhone, most efforts were going towards building out AT&T’s 3G. The upgrades hopefully will make the neglected 2.5 infrastructure better, but maybe its just to keep the whole thing from going down when all the fanboys start browsing on June 29th. Of course, these upgrades will help all EDGE handsets.”
Full article here.
Paul Roberts reports for InfoWorld, “AT&T spokesman John Kampfe declined to specifically respond to questions about whether the ‘Fine EDGE’ upgrade was linked to the upcoming release of iPhone. ‘We continue to enhance the capacity and coverage of our EDGE network to ensure that our customers have the best experience,’ Kampfe said.”
Roberts reports, “He declined to comment on the rumors about the iPhone/Fine EDGE link… but noted that AT&T’s EDGE network sports speeds of between 75Kbps and 135Kbps, countering a claim by Gizmodo that the upgrade would enhance EDGE performance from 40Kbps to 80Kbps.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Zorrin” for the heads up.]
MacDailyNews Take: We predict that iPhone users will be surprised at how much Wi-Fi access they find and how much they use it for things that demand greater speed such as Web browsing, Widget use, HTML email, etc. We also predict that some iPhone naysayers will be struck dumber than usual at the lack of iPhone users’ complaints about connectivity speed.
iPhone Biaaatch!
What are the chances 3G would be available with a software download later on?
I think people will be suprised how much they start using the iPhone at home and at work where they have wifi already. Who needs a media pc type device when everyone can access the net from their iPhone whilst watching TV? Network speeds only really matter when you’re not at a home or work type location, in which case you’re probably not going to be doing anything truly heavy duty anyway. In addition, as stated, wifi is becoming far more ubiquitous anyway.
re: MDN’s take. People will always complain about speed, regardless of how good it currently is, until we learn to make things happen before we ask for them. And some people will probably still expect or wish for more.
There will be a disporportionate amount of people who say the connectivity sucks. I am not convinced about cell phone companies. They all have equally horrid networks that are geared towards maximum profitability than towards actual throughput.
Rob Enderle anyone?
That’s “iPhone beeyotch”.
Azureus for the iPhone! Now that would save me a fortune on my electricity bill!
MDN, that might be true in the US, but here in old sucking Europe Wi-Fi isn’t that popular and, most of all, isn’t that cheap!
I hope things change quickly, but so far so bad…
Operation Fine EDGE = Orienting a deep foe.
WiFi is everywhere these days?
Besides, home, office and Starbucks, where exactly is it?
I mean, for me personally, I use my desktop Mac and a land line phone at home and the office… I want to use iPhone everywhere else, and unfortunatly, WiFi is not in those places.
For E-mail, EDGE will be fine.
For browsing, a suggestion/prediction: RSS becomes a ‘killer app’ for iPhone users.
Quick loading, low frills web display will make surfing, even with EDGE, seem fine.
Wifi hotspots, while not ubiquitous yet are certainly increasing. As you mentioned Home, Office, Starbucks, where most Americans spend significant time, plus virtually every major hotel in the US, most non-starbucks coffee shops, the majority of college campuses, many restaurants, most McDonald’s, most of you neighbors houses (are unsecured), the entire town of Grand Haven Michigan (I know, you don’t live there), San Francisco (is the free Google WiFi cloud operating there yet?) and many many others.
We’re getting there and getting there pretty quickly.
If I’m driving in my car and get a phone call where I need to look something up on the web from my lap top, I never have to go more than 10 houses before I find a nireless network with no password. Most are open, I think. You know, Windows users. Finally got ther wireless router to work after 2 hours on the phone with tech support, don’t want to risk putting on a password and having it not work again.
Hm.
I wonder if I should create a fon (http://www.fon.com) AP, when it comes to Europe.
Oh sure, there’s lots of wifi here in New York City. But, thanks to the theiving mindset so prevalent here, most people have their networks password-protected. So much for “wifi connectivity everywhere”.
Portland, Oregon has become pretty much wireless what with MetroFi and Personal Telco all around the city, not to mention the password free wireless owners. However, I still have a wait-and-see attitude with the iPhone.
I’m also waiting for a new EDGE vrs 3G Myth, or Kbps Myth coming out of Apple real soon. Remember the Mhz Myth?
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I have had 3 cell phones now and each one has gotten crappier and crappier! Sure, the GUI is nicer to look at and they have more functions, but cell signal and sound quality has consistently gone down hill over the last 5 years.
So will the iPhone have wireless-n or the old stuff?