AT&T hedges bets, advertises iPhone 3G "real world" speeds of 1.4Mbps

The eagle eyes over at MacNN spotted something amiss in AT&T's recent update to their Apple iPhone 3G website: despite the fact that the latest gen of HSDPA cards offer speeds up to 7.2Mbps, AT&T is claiming only 1.4 on the iPhone.

There's been some clarification since then. That 1.4Mbps is the average "observed speed" as seen over AT&T's networks, with faster speeds possible on both the hardware and network side, but they don't want to promise too much when their network gets slammed on July 11th. Hedged bets, as it were.

I think that's a fine tack to take. Apple's trying to advertise real-world speeds over theoretical maximums. That prevents customers from being pissed off when everything isn't optimal and allows them to be delighted when they get faster downstream than they were counting on. And even 1.4Mbps, as a worst case scenario, blows the pants off of EDGE. Let's just hope that AT&T continues to improve their network so that 1.4Mbps edges upwards over time.

AT&T (not) limiting iPhone 3G speeds to 1.4Mbps [MacNN]

Discussion

Take a look at this

#1 posted by mujadaddy , June 17, 2008 7:54 AM

That is approximately the download rate that I get on an AT&T 3G network (on a Blackjack ONE that I paid $200 for, 3 months before they dropped the price to $70. What I'm saying is, I'm already on AT&T and I'll probably have to get an iPhone. Or one for the wife :) )

#2 posted by Enochrewt , June 17, 2008 8:26 AM

I agree, I'd rather see real world speeds advertised than their math-made speeds.