The former, of course. You nailed it. Thanks!

Please see my latest post.

David

In the UK there is a network called 3. It is a 3g ONLY network, and your device HAS TO SUPPORT 3g TO RUN ON IT.

Suprisingly enough, that is the only network the iPhone WILL NOT WORK ON.

Explain that Mr I get 3g on my 2g phone.

I’ll just write catchy headlines about something that’s in the new, pretend to understand it, and write some gobbledegook that hopefully non-techies won’t understand and therefore think I got the scoop of the year/decade/century.

You could have disproved your hypothesis by doing some very basic research.

How is it you are a communications strategist if this is the kind of thing you come up with?………

Moving on to your second paragraph:

“But in America, however, original iPhones are throttled back by Apple’s software and forced to operate only on AT&T’s aged, outdated and antiquated Edge data network where the data stream runs at about 80k or at dial-up speeds, even though users pay a premium for the service. ”

Could you tell us whether it was your AT&T or Apple source that informed you that Apple has software built into the original iPhone that throttles their speed?

How is this throttling controlled on a geographic basis? Does the iPhone check the location of the cell tower, and then introduce the throttling based on that location?

I only ask because of course AT&T have now rolled out their 3G network in the US. What you are clearly implying is that the original iPhone is more than capable of operating on AT&T’s 3G network at the same speed that the 3G iPhone does (your first sentence). If this is indeed the case, and Apple have software built into the iPhone that only allows the original iPhone to take advantage of 3G networks outside the US, then clearly we have moved on from a relatively harmless debate, and I think it might be more appropriate get some lawyers to the table.

And if you’d simply listened to the first few commenters who knew what they were talking about – I wouldn’t have been able to say that. But you seem intent on resisting facts like plague …

You can backpedal all you want – but the point has been made pretty clear by all of your commenters. The 1st gen iPhone operates on EDGE networks, and only EDGE networks.

Do EDGE networks and 3G networks sometimes overlap in the same areas? Of course. Do they also sometimes utilize the same frequencies? Yes, that too. However, they are still NOT THE SAME THING.

Does EU have far better EDGE networks than the US? Heck yeah. Consider how fewer towers that it takes to give wall-to-wall 5-bars coverage in the UK versus the US. EDGE has a theoretical limit of about 384kbps if memory serves me correctly (see that, I’m admitting when I’m not certain) so it would be no surprise to see dramatically better performance in Europe. 3G? No. Better? Yes.

Here, go Google this — WCDMA. That should give you a quick primer on 3G. Although I will admit, this is a step I would have expected a journalist with your credentials to have done *before* writing an article like this.

Here’s another mind-blower for you, that you would have had to walk any further than Wikipedia to discover … EDGE is, believe it or not, considered “3G” by the ITU!

“EDGE can be considered a 3G radio technology and is part of ITU’s 3G definition”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EDGE

D’oh! I just blew your mind, didn’t I? It’s ok, you can admit it…

I’m afraid this isn’t true. I understand your point about US cellular 2G networks not being as fast 2G networks in Europe, and I don’t disagree with that. But the 2G iPhone does, definitively, not work “just as fast as the new iPhone 3G” on a 3G network. The 3G picks up a 3G signal, and the 2G only picks up a GPRS/EDGE signal (depending on which is available). Neither is anywhere near as fast as the 3G network speeds.

If you’d like me to provide you with some connection speed results from the iPhone which demonstrate this, I can.

I see your point, but your original post is badly worded and, as a result, misleading: on a network that supports 3G, the 2G iPhone isn’t “just as fast” as the 3G iPhone. It can’t be, because it can’t connect to the 3G network (just the alternative, lower-speed EDGE at best – and if you can’t accept that EDGE (even in Europe) is slower than 3G, you should look it up somewhere). And that’s because it doesn’t have the chip it needs to connect to a 3G network.

So I take your point about US network speeds being a bit poor, and being able to get better speeds in Europe, but you’re going to have to rethink way the original article is worded.

The phone isn’t connecting to the 3g networks, it’s connecting to the 2g networks owned by companies providing 3g services

However without knowing your sources which I obviously can’t speak for, I have trouble seeing that they would suggest the original iPhone connects to a 3g network. I do understand that our edge speeds in europe may be quick in comparison to your edge or 3g speeds (hence my request for clarification over your use of edge and gprs), but this is seperate from connecting to a 3g network at 3g speeds on an original iphone when abroad – which is what has been implied. Stating faster speeds on 2g networks would have been hard to argue. Bringing 3g into it has caused the misunderstandings, criticism and rants of people including myself