On 2008-03-27, iPhone News <invalid@nospam.net> wrote:
> Nokia Siemens Networks announced today that they have successfully
> doubled the speed of EDGE (to 592 kbps) using a software-based solution
> that is feasible for existing networks.
>
> Expected in the third quarter of 2008, Nokia will follow up with EGPRS
> 2, offering 1.2 Mbps and uploads reaching 473 kbps.
>
> It's not the fastest tech on th block by any means, but it's potentially
> very good news to a slew of iPhone owners, as well as any manufacturer
> who'd like to compromise a bit of speed in the interest of battery life.
>
> http://gizmodo.com/372868/edge-doubles-its-speed
I'm not sure how this is good news for existing iPhone users since,
while dual carrier EDGE might just be a software upgrade for Nokia
Siemens Networks base stations, it seems almost certain to require a
hardware upgrade for handsets.
I'm also not sure about the battery life thing either. 3G phones
have traditionally required a lot of power for the chips doing
baseband processing, but the power cost of this is coming down
quick to the point where it isn't a big deal any more. EDGE phones,
on the other hand, have hideously inefficient power amplifiers,
this doesn't seem to be getting better fast, and I've got a feeling
that doubling the number of EDGE carriers the phone is transmitting
can only make this worse.
Dennis Ferguson