o2 and EDGE

[daveyfs]

Looks like o2 have just implemented EDGE!

Its annoyed me a bit, living in the place the size of Swansea (not the biggest place in the world but still with a population approaching 1/4 million, excluding the students), that o2 haven't provided any 3g coverage at all.

Anyhoo, just noticed an E appearing where the signal indicator usually appears under the signal strength bars on my N73 - this does indicate EDGE doesn't it? I didn't know o2 were intending to provide this. Have they said they were going to?

Browsing seems a LOT faster than before :)

[3GsInGH]

Yes they have internally announced this to employees and it looks to be in collaboration with the launch of the iphone later on (although this is just one possible reason why they have launched this)

Have a look here:
http://www.3g.co.uk/3GForum/showthread.php?t=64787

[daveyfs]

Ah, that explains a lot. And yes, I tend to agree with you - it seems that o2 would do much better to invest in extending their 3g rollout instead of resorting to what is, to all intents and purposes, an outdated technology by now.

Is there still talk of them network sharing with T-Mobile in order to achieve the 80% 3g coverage benchmark by the end of the year?

[old bill]

Is O2 going to launch HSDPA ? Looking in this months O2 broucher under the specs for the O2 Cocoon it lists HSDPA. As its a O2 only phone why list something which is not going to be supported ?

[3GsInGH]

I truly hope they do but even so their 3G coverage is very limited so dont expect HSDPA to be any better.

[mrtivo]

So putting 2 and 2 together, does this indicate that Apple are going to release their v1 iPhone here, with no 3g support? By all accounts upgrading the network to support EDGE is pretty quick. I saw a story on 'The Register' today about the network upgrade, and thought that it sealed the fate of the phones capabilities. Why upgrade to EDGE if the phone can support 3g?