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3G Speed?

R

Resist

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Jan 15, 2008
3,003
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"iPad with Wi-Fi + 3G offers superfast data speeds up to 7.2 Mbps over 3G cellular networks around the world."

I cut the above from the Apple site and am curious what parts of the world get up to 7.2 Mbps? My iPhone with AT&T only get me .30 Mbps on 3G, so I'm going to assume if I bought an iPad with 3G my speed wouldn't get any faster. And if that is the case then I'm not sure I want to pay more for an iPad 3G, plus the $30 extra a month to AT&T. Is the iPad now stuck with AT&T like the iPhone?
 
Here in the Kansas city metro area I have done speedtests that approach 5mb dl, common speeds between 2.5 and 3.5mb dl. I live outside of town and with 2 bars of 3G I can still pull 800kbps easily. Obviously this will vary market to market but here the speed is very good for me.
 
If the iPad can't access those speeds yet, it upsets me that Apple is getting away with making it seem like they do.
 
Can vary with your area

3G speed?
4G speed?
Sprint Overdrive?
HTC EVO Phone tether?
Jailbreak?

I hope to have answers in the coming months
 
AT&T's 3G speeds are usually an epic fail, at least out here in SoCal. A big reason they were voted worst carrier in the US just a few months ago. You get a 3G iPad and you are stuck with AT&Ts internet. Much better to get the wifi model and run it on whatever you want. My turbo road runner cable internet at home going thru my router kills any 3G speed AT&T will have, so does my Sprint 3G/4G overdrive, especially in 4G mode.
 
Resist said:
If the iPad can't access those speeds yet, it upsets me that Apple is getting away with making it seem like they do.
Click to expand...

How is AT&T making it "seem like they do"

I need the 3G for out in the field but I do NOT expect it to be as fast as my WiFi connection at the house or office. I just need a connection and even 2G would be good for me.:eek:
 
Resist said:
If the iPad can't access those speeds yet, it upsets me that Apple is getting away with making it seem like they do.
Click to expand...


"up to 7.2 Mbps", the important part is "up to."

The 3G iPad is completely capable, hardware and software, of using 3G networks at up to 7.2Mbps.
 
GregGebhardt said:
How is AT&T making it "seem like they do"
Click to expand...
I didn't say AT&T, I said Apple. Because that is exactly what they posted on the Apple site. And yes I know the key words they used were, "up to" 7.2 Mbps. Apple's marketing clearly was trying to leave the consumer with the idea that you will get 7.2 Mbps with the iPad 3G. It would have been more truthful to show the average speeds for specific parts of the country, along with the max of 7.2 Mbps.

And as I said, I only get .30 Mbps speed using 3G in my area. I mean, are you kidding me...not even half a Meg download speed for 3G! While many might not need 3G or faster speeds when out in the field, I do.
 
I just ran my wife's iPhone through DSLReports.com and got consistent 3G speeds between 1.2 and 1.8 mbps with latencies between 27 and 185 ms. This is not a major metro area - it's a vacation area in northern Minnesota.
 
Keep in mind that's not only for the US. Quite a few countries have MUCH faster 3G speeds than the US, so that applies to us as well.

Personally I think the 7.2MBps is sadly low. Here in Canada we have 21MBps 3G in a lot of places (everywhere within six hours of my house at least).
 
Resist said:
I didn't say AT&T, I said Apple. Because that is exactly what they posted on the Apple site. And yes I know the key words they used were, "up to" 7.2 Mbps. Apple's marketing clearly was trying to leave the consumer with the idea that you will get 7.2 Mbps with the iPad 3G. It would have been more truthful to show the average speeds for specific parts of the country, along with the max of 7.2 Mbps.

And as I said, I only get .30 Mbps speed using 3G in my area. I mean, are you kidding me...not even half a Meg download speed for 3G! While many might not need 3G or faster speeds when out in the field, I do.
Click to expand...

Apple is talking about it's hardware capability. AT&T is the bottle neck not Apple's hardware.
 
Doju said:
Keep in mind that's not only for the US. Quite a few countries have MUCH faster 3G speeds than the US, so that applies to us as well.

Personally I think the 7.2MBps is sadly low. Here in Canada we have 21MBps 3G in a lot of places (everywhere within six hours of my house at least).
Click to expand...

US is a little slow with the 3G coverage. Then again, there are a lot of people who don't even have 21 Mbps internet connection in their homes.
 
3G speeds using speedtest.net app vary widely in Chicago area on my iPhone. I have been testing against connecting to my Sprint Overdrive running 3 g mode in side by side comparisons and generally getting higher speeds on the Sprint service in then same areas. Speeds are all over the map with both.

Kenal0
 
Resist said:
I cut the above from the Apple site and am curious what parts of the world get up to 7.2 Mbps? My iPhone with AT&T only get me .30 Mbps on 3G, so I'm going to assume if I bought an iPad with 3G my speed wouldn't get any faster.
Click to expand...

Note that you're actually getting 2.40 Mbps. Mbps is megabits and MBps is megabytes (basically, there are 8 bits in a byte). But yes, unfortunately, they only mean that the hardware supports that speed (kinda like how your internet company doesn't have to dig up the ground to up the speed of your internet).
 
By the time you can get 7.2 out of AT&Ts 3G network everyone else will be on 4G. If you are in a good coverage area then it should be very usable for you.
 
Niiro13 said:
Note that you're actually getting 2.40 Mbps. Mbps is megabits and MBps is megabytes (basically, there are 8 bits in a byte).
Click to expand...
I know the difference between bits and bytes. I am getting .30 Mbps, not MBps. This was using the FCC Mobile Broadband Test app. Using the Speedtest.net app I got .56 Mbps (megabits/sec). The 3G service for my area is extremely slow.

And yes I get it that Apple was talking about their hardware capability. My issue is with the impression they give the average consumer.
 
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