Apple iPhone

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Apple iPhone

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Anthony Fiti
Kurtis
N/A
Jul. 8, 2007

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AT&T's Network - From Fine Edge to Broken Edge

During the week prior to launch, many folks in major metropolitan areas noticed their EDGE speeds increasing to very good speeds. Reports were that 60-75Kb/s downstream speeds had been boosted up close to 200Kb/s. This represented a very large jump both in raw speed and usability.

The theoretical max data throughput for EDGE is 473Kb/s, though I'd expect AT&T to max out around 200Kb/s as that is a reasonable speed which will provide adequate performance for web pages and limited multimedia.

It's not the EDGE technology itself that is slow, but rather the infrastructure that the data travels over between the towers to the internet. Voice calls are obviously the priority, and data traffic has to deal with slow transmissions. AT&T engaged in a project, informally named "Fine Edge", that would provide more bandwidth to the towers in an effort to give EDGE a much needed boost given the current slow speeds. Running fiber and furnishing the towers faster throughput speeds to the internet results in a much needed speed boost.

However, real life doesn't always seem so peachy. On the Monday after launch, I proceeded to bring my iPhone to work (as its now my main cell phone and I don't go anywhere without my cell phone). I did five demonstrations throughout the day to my coworkers as they came by asking about the phone, so I showed its capabilities.

However my single afternoon demonstration was thwarted by a problem with AT&T's EDGE network. As reported by MacRumors forums and HowardForums, large parts of AT&T's EDGE data network were offline and inoperable the first business day after launch. Perhaps the overload of 500,000 new devices on the network brought AT&T's system to its knees.

The network was operational the rest of the week without any issues.

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Page 12 of 14

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Page 1: Introduction
Page 2: The Line
Page 3: What's In the Box & First Looks
Page 4: Plans and Activation
Page 5: User Experience - Interface
Page 6: User Experience - Battery Life
Page 7: User Experience - the Keyboard
Page 8: User Experience - Widescreen iPod
Page 9: User Experience - Mobile Phone and Text Messaging
Page 10: User Experience - Internet and Email
Page 11: User Experience - Widgets and Other Features
Page 12: AT&T's Network - From Fine Edge to Broken Edge
Page 13: Missing Features
Page 14: Conclusion

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5 User Comments

1 - Posted by ebernet on July 9, 2007 - 3:05 pm

Instead of buying another apple cable, I bought a car charger that included both a USB>Mini USB that works with my camera and will charge a blackberry, and a USB>Dock connector cable. Both cables AND the cigarette lighter dohicky were the same $20 as just the cable, AND they were black. I even bought it at the Apple store. It was made by Griffin, I am sure others do it.
Eytan

2 - Posted by ebernet on July 9, 2007 - 3:53 pm

Some more comments - Yahoo provides free push email, and will sync your address book up to Yahoo - a great feature and a way to get address book syncing between machines without paying the .mac tax.

As for the battery issue, a full charge cycle is a full discharge/charge, which I have had 2 so far. After the 350-450 FULL cycles you are at 80% of your battery.

As a longtime iPod owner, the battery has never been an issue for me. My hope is that by the time I need a battery replacement (2 years down the line or more) an after market of doing the installs will exist - and while it will not be 35 like it is now for the iPod, it will be a cheaper $50 or so then Apple's 80+, and by then the battery capacities will be higher. I think we need to wait and give the battery grief when the battery deserves grief, when problems start...

3 - Posted by Kurtis on July 9, 2007 - 7:37 pm

Thanks for the comments, ebernet. And welcome to TheTechLounge forums. :)

BTW, regarding battery life, I think it's a valid concern, considering that the brand new battery under heavy use only lasts a single day. 2 days tops for moderate-heavy use. My treo650 used to go for a week before I'd have to charge it, and after a year and a half or so, now it dies in 2 days. Of course, mine is easily replaceable, but the point is that if it has such short battery life NEW, any decrease in that battery life is going to be a big issue down the road, and that is inevitable.

4 - Posted by ynYmpmTbMbfl on December 3, 2007 - 9:57 pm

IXiMcB post, Thanks. That’s Ben. a super ,

5 - Posted by Max Slowik on December 3, 2007 - 11:02 pm

snorkt.

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