Phone companies adding to iPhone 3G woes?

Stephen Withers
Tuesday, 26 August 2008 05:58

Business IT - Technology

Apple-sanctioned telcos are being fingered in the case of the iPhone 3G performance problems, with faster speeds and better voice calls in one country but not another. Does this mean Apple's off the hook?

Wired recently asked its iPhone-wielding readers to report their download speeds and in return received more than 2600 usable data points.

Among the headline conclusions, Wired found users in Germany and the Netherlands reported the fastest average speeds (around 2Mbps), Australian reported the slowest (around 759Kbps), and the worst 3G connectivity was in the US which saw the most people getting no 3G connectivity and slow 3G speeds in major US metro areas.

From an Australian viewpoint, it's interesting to read that Telstra came in equal third with Telia (Sweden), Softbank (Japan) and AT&T (US), while Optus and Virgin came equal slowest - not surprising, insofar as they are two faces of the same network.

Some regular iTWire readers would no doubt be offended if I didn't find an excuse for a dig at Telstra, so try this for size: maybe the reason that Telstra users reported relatively good speeds is that hardly anyone can afford their rates (even the new, improved deals such as $29 for 300M), so there's plenty of bandwidth available for those who can.

But is there more than just general network issues involved? See page two.