All AT&T customers seeing boost in EDGE speeds
A number of users are reportedly seeing dramatic
increases in EDGE throughput.
Shortly after beginning the shutdown process of AMPS and TDMA networks, and just hours before the launch of the EDGE-capable iPhone, a number of users are reportedly seeing dramatic increases in EDGE throughput. After questioning whether the mobile was actually using WiFi, a New Yorker began to see if fellow AT&T customers across the nation were also noticing the substantial boost in speeds; sure enough, it looks like quite a few others are seeing speeds upwards of 200Kbps.
Update: We tried some speed tests on an EDGE handset ourselves, and though it’s been a little inconsistent, we’ve been shocked to find a number of runs over 200kbps. True, these kinds of speeds are theoretically possible (actually, little known fact, the ITU technically defines EDGE as a 3G standard), but we’d never expect to see them in practice. Should make the iPhone’s browsing experience a little more bearable if it holds up!
A running list at one site showed speeds from 160-365kbps.
Seeing this referenced at a telecom site, I Googled for a spell and found forum discussions with AT&T engineers going back to February about this. Generally, no one believed they were going to bring their system up to the speeds they predicted.
A nice bit of tweaking that benefits all AT&T EDGE customers. Though I [almost] hate to tell you what the official project was called inside AT&T:
Getting “iReady“.
Posted: Sat - June 30, 2007 at 06:27 AM