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Fast EDGE experience today worth sharing...

G

GTiPhone

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 22, 2007
249
0
Island Heights, NJ
I've been using my iPhone since day one and access EDGE regularly. I get speeds that vary from 70 Kbps up to 300 Kbps here in NJ.

Today I was at the Ocean County Mall in Toms River NJ and sat down in the middle of the mall to use the web. Oddly enough I was a few feet from At&t. I opened safari and for the entire time I sat there I had blazing speed. I mean as fast as wifi if not faster. I didnt have the presence of mind to go to bandwidthspeedtest.com but I can tell you it was faster than anything else I've done on the iPhone.

My question is: is it possible, being so close to AT&T, that they have an antenna of some kind that creates a sort of "hot spot" for EDGE?

The only reason this might even matter is the potential for better service through edge. Many self proclaimed experts on this site seem to believe that any improvement is impossible. I now disagree.
 
megfilmworks

megfilmworks

macrumors 68020
Jul 1, 2007
2,046
16
Sherman Oaks
I think with all the bad press att is trying to fine tune the system. Not sure about proximity. They have a program to upgrade and tune the EDGE infrastructure and its called "Fine Edge" I think.
 
scaredpoet

scaredpoet

macrumors 604
Apr 6, 2007
6,628
360
There are definite theoretical optimizations that can be made to improve EDGE. Just one question though: are you ABSOLUTELY sure that you were on EDGE, and not inadvertently "borrowing a cup of internetz" from a nearby hotspot? This is a common thing that happens with iPhone users at the AT&T store in Menlo Park Mall, Edison NJ. They go in and think EDGE is blindingly fast... little do they realize that the iPhones are really borrowing WiFi from the Apple Store across the way. :)
 
conshok26

conshok26

macrumors 6502
Apr 10, 2006
486
59
North Tonawanda, NY
I've been using EDGE for the past couple of days since my internet has not been working and I must say it's been pretty useful. Even youtube seems snappy. And im using it to post this.
 
M

mugwump

macrumors regular
Jan 10, 2004
219
0
Sheesh, around the nearby busy stores during mid-day, EDGE drops down to nothing. It works for a minute, and then "no response from server." How friggin aggravating.

Other times, in far away places, it's quite solid and usable.
 
javaGuru

javaGuru

macrumors 6502a
Jul 15, 2007
927
352
Were you visiting a webpage that you have visited recently? If so, this could have been data loading from your cache. This would explain the high speeds.
 
B

blankleader

macrumors newbie
Jul 1, 2007
25
0
Little Rock
After reading all the complaints about Edge speed, I feel really lucky.

The Edge speed here in Little Rock has been consistently fast enough to where I can enjoy just browsing the Web without all the agony it seems so many have experienced. It's not lightning fast, to be sure, but certainly very usable.

There was even a time I forgot I wasn't on my work WiFi anymore as I surfed the Web in a restaurant while I was on my lunch break. The little "E" at the top reminded me — and the speeds were awesome.
 
J

Joshua8o8

macrumors 6502
Jul 2, 2007
372
0
Honolulu, Hawai'i
I just tested my EDGE speed on bandwidthspeedtest.com and i got 140.2 kps. I dont know if thats good or not, but damn edge is slow in my opinion. Where ever i go i seem to always get good reception but edge always seem to be slow. Im glad i got wifi at my house because if i didnt i would not be too happy with the internet on my iphone. I realize the iphone is still a phone but still, i wish EDGE was at least a little faster. Its not really enjoyable to use.
 
A

Angelo921

macrumors 6502
Jul 30, 2007
335
11
Joshua8o8 said:
I just tested my EDGE speed on bandwidthspeedtest.com and i got 140.2 kps. I dont know if thats good or not, but damn edge is slow in my opinion. Where ever i go i seem to always get good reception but edge always seem to be slow. Im glad i got wifi at my house because if i didnt i would not be too happy with the internet on my iphone. I realize the iphone is still a phone but still, i wish EDGE was at least a little faster. Its not really enjoyable to use.
Click to expand...


I only got 70.2kps using Edge and 902kps using my WiFi.
 
L

Luigi239

macrumors 6502a
Jan 25, 2007
529
0
I'm pretty sure that AT&T puts signal repeaters in all of their stores so the customers can have good reception and good service while potentially making a purchase. Going to a store and seeing that all the cell phones had one bar wouldn't really want to make you go with AT&T, would it?
 
MBHockey

MBHockey

macrumors 601
Oct 4, 2003
4,055
303
Connecticut
Yesterday, EDGE was absolutely flying for me at work. I don't know what it was because I always get 5 bars at work, but i went to the speedtest and i was shocked to see it said only 60 kbps...there was no way it was actually 60 because i was loading MR, Digg, mlb.com...one after the other in just under 5-6 seconds. Should have tried a second speed test.
 
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