Edge, Yes or No

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PD - 12 Jun 2005 15:08 GMT

I purchased an unlocked GSM Treo 650 not long ago to use with my Cingular
account. One of the reasons I switched from Sony-E P900 to Treo 650 was
because of Edge, and I immediately noticed a difference - though not THAT
impressive at all.

Yesterday, replacing my wife's phone, the Cingular rep. in a local Chapel
Hill, North Carolina Cingular store told me that Edge had not even been
rolled out yet, and that the only difference in speed was due to different
GPRS compression ratio.

Now I'm trying to figure out whether he knows what he's talking about. As
usual the Cingular website is of little help, and calling them, well, I
don't waste my time.

I did find this, however, which dates from January 2005 and seems to
indicate that Edge is indeed available throughout the Carolinas.

http://www.cellular.co.za/news_2005/jan/010305-cingular_wireless_technology_boo.htm

I'd just like to have somebody confirm for me that Edge has or has NOT been
rolled out.

It is amazing what kind of conflicting information you get from Cingular
people....................

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GomJabbar - 12 Jun 2005 15:41 GMT

I believe that EDGE is available in the Carolinas, but that does not
mean that it is available everywhere in the Carolinas where you get
Cingular service. I don't live or travel to the Carolinas, but I do
travel and use a Sony Ericsson GC83 PC card that supports EDGE. Some
of the areas I travel to, I do not get EDGE speeds, only GPRS speeds.

My card chooses the data carrier in order of preference: Cingular
first, AT&T second, T-Mobile third - at least this is the case in the
areas I have traveled. Often the Cingular carrier is not EDGE, AT&T is
usually EDGE, and T-Mobile is not EDGE. My connection software chooses
the carrier automatically, but I can chose the carrier manually as
well. This however takes several extra steps, and everytime I restart
the software it is in automatic mode. Note that I do not incur any
extra charges for using AT&T or T-Mobile cell sites.

Regarding EDGE, it has a rather high latency, which means when viewing
web pages, they do not load as fast as you might expect. This is
because web pages are often composed of many elements that are loaded
individually. On the other hand, when downloading a file for instance,
or streaming audio or video, EDGE is very fast.

You may like to check out the following website:
http://www.nwc.com/story/singlePageFormat.jhtml?articleID=49400836

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PD - 12 Jun 2005 18:04 GMT

Very interesting, thank you very much.

What you write about web pages makes some sense, because I think I HAD
noticed that individual downloades seemed at times quite quick. I have a
Treo 650, though, and I've never been able to figure out whether you can
even manually PICK your service - assuming more than one is available. On my
old Sony P900, it did allow this.

In other words, I can't force the phone to connect to At&T with the idea
that, maybe, it has more Edge capabilities on its towers.

I just can't figure out what nonsense the Cingular guy was feeding me in the
store because, usually, he is very well-informed and understands the
technology more than most.

But he can't be right - Edge must be available widely, and not too far away
is the next step up the tech. ladder.

>I believe that EDGE is available in the Carolinas, but that does not
> mean that it is available everywhere in the Carolinas where you get
[quoted text clipped - 19 lines]
> You may like to check out the following website:
> http://www.nwc.com/story/singlePageFormat.jhtml?articleID=49400836

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