3G for iphone needed?

[ChilMan]

Is 3G for iphone really needed with AT&T in Mississippi or any other area with no 3G coverage? I ask this since I live in Mississippi where AT&T has zero 3G coverage.

My thought, I guess, is even if I waited for the next version of iphone with 3G, It would not really matter since it is not available from AT&T anywhere in Mississippi and will probably be a long time before it is.

I am on the fence on getting an iphone. The lack of 3G being the only major reason that has kept me from getting it (which sounds moot now), the other is I just got a razor phone for myself for Christmas. I am a current AT&T customer now and do not even have the data plan with my razor but I really enjoyed playing with my friends iphone the other day. The data service should only be $20 more so that is not a big deal. I have never been under contract with cingular or AT&T but I was not planning on leaving.

Any others in my situation where 3G on the iphone really makes no difference?

ChilMan

 

[RedBeard]

Well if you spend $600 on the iphone, hopefully you will keep it for a year or two.

By then 3G will be much more widespread, so you might regret not having it. But then again, I am pretty happy with EDGE speeds on tmobile for anything that I actually do on the phone.

 

[zig3695]

EDGE is slow. its actually not too bad but the real crutch is its lack of streaming reliability. forget about trying to stream online radio over EDGE, its a plain pain in the ass even though it technically works. not sure how much better 3g is about that, but i hear HSDPA is supposed to put an end to wireless internet connection problems...

 

[RedBeard]

Yeah EDGE is pretty high latency. The actual download speeds are pretty good. I can hit ~15 to 20kb/s speeds for a largish file download, but the latency tends to be worse than dialup. That is probably why is recks havok on straming media.

 

[Kaido]

EDGE was bumped up for the iPhone - it's running at about 200k on average right now. I think part of the reason Apple didn't put 3G in the iPhone is that many places don't have 3G, which would result in a lot of complaints about lack of service and poor speed.

 

[zig3695]

Originally posted by: RedBeard
Yeah EDGE is pretty high latency. The actual download speeds are pretty good. I can hit ~15 to 20kb/s speeds for a largish file download, but the latency tends to be worse than dialup. That is probably why is recks havok on straming media.

makes sense. if i could stream audio with my pearl in a reliable way, i would have a TON more use-time on that phone. think of it, your entire pc audio collection on your phone, without actually being on your phone.