EDGE availability in the UK?

[enigmatic2]

Hi, I finally bought an iPhone (the 16GB upgrade made the decision easier!) Anyway, it's all great, with the exception of non-wifi usage. I'm in the centre of Belfast, and according to O2's website I should have their highest quality of network connection, i.e. 3G/EDGE.

All I'm getting though, as far as I can tell, is a GPRS signal - the wi-fi symbol is replaced by a little blue box and iphonespeedtest.com shows 45.1 kbps. Is this down to O2's EDGE availability or my phone settings? If I have a true EDGE connection, shouldn't I get the little E symbol?

 

[adamsweeting]

Obviously you can't get 3G on the iPhone. But you're correct - if you're getting the box, then you're getting GPRS.

EDGE isn't massively faster than GPRS.

Sounds like you're just in a bad reception area. I would stress about it, as I doubt you'd see a massive difference in speed between EDGE and GPRS.

I'm in the same boat BTW!

 

[enigmatic2]

I would stress about it, as I doubt you'd see a massive difference in speed between EDGE and GPRS.

Well, sure. But it's just so slow (and in fact without a true EDGE or wifi connection the YouTube app refuses to work!) I must say I was expecting a faster connection - not 3G speeds, but faster than what I'm getting.

 

[domness]

Well, sure. But it's just so slow (and in fact without a true EDGE or wifi connection the YouTube app refuses to work!) I must say I was expecting a faster connection - not 3G speeds, but faster than what I'm getting.

As was I. About 10% of the time I actually get an EDGE connection. Other than that.. Nothing except GPRS!

Yey for us "UKers".

 

[tersono]

EDGE is patchy at best in the UK - in large cities, it's often (but not always) available. Outside, you can pretty much forget it, sorry.

It's not actually THAT much faster than GPRS anyhow.

 

[CubeHacker]

It's not actually THAT much faster than GPRS anyhow.

EDGE might be slow compared to 3G HSDPA, but its fast enough compared to GPRS. I max out at 40kbps on GPRS, and I get 220kbps on EDGE. Thats over 5x faster - enough to make an excruciatingly slow experience a usable one. GRPS was made to browse WAP sites, not full websites. I would NOT want to use Safari on GRPS!

 

[AlecEdworthy]

All I'm getting though, as far as I can tell, is a GPRS signal - the wi-fi symbol is replaced by a little blue box

<snip>

If I have a true EDGE connection, shouldn't I get the little E symbol?

I suspect that with firmware 1.1.2 (can't vouch for 1.1.3), the edge symbol (the 'E') does not always appear when you are getting edge service. I certainly seem to get speeds suggesting edge connectivity with just the blue square there and a couple of colleagues at work agree that this appears to be the case with their phones too.

Obviously not really a help if you have actually tested your speeds, but still worth mentioning I thought

Alec

 

[isooz]

I'm sorry if this is a dumb question but do iphones access WAP? I know mine doesn't (cos it's tesco ) but do other networks?

 

[jimN]

The iPhone browser can't read WML files, which I think is the wap stuff. I was having a look through at their developer's stuff just this morning so am pretty confident that this is right.

I have been very fortunate with Edge (in London) in that I have had full signal Edge at home and at work and this is more than usable. I have a friend with a 3g phone but he could never get a signal which rather negated the whole thing.

 

[enigmatic2]

I suspect that with firmware 1.1.2 (can't vouch for 1.1.3), the edge symbol (the 'E') does not always appear when you are getting edge service

I'm on 1.1.3 - all I can go on are the speeds I'm getting, which as I say represent no more than GPRS performance. I'm going to try the phone in different areas of the city over the weekend to see if things improve...

 

[enigmatic2]

I have been very fortunate with Edge (in London) in that I have had full signal Edge at home and at work and this is more than usable.

What speeds are you achieving with Edge, out of interest?

 

[timmillwood]

I find edge coverage very good here in south Wales, but a lot of the time I can get wifi, in work, at home, and here in macdonalds