3G iPhone to be a tasty triple-band treat?

by Alex Zaharov-Reutt

Thursday, 15 May 2008

Page 1 of 3 ! With confirmed iPhone resellers AT&T and Rogers using 850MHz 3G networks, just like unconfirmed Australian iPhone reseller Telstra, and with SingTel (Optus) and Vodafone using 900MHz and 2100MHz 3.5G networks in Australia, will the 3G iPhone support the 2100MHz, 850MHz and 900MHz networks in a tasty global 3.5G triple-band treat? With Optus and Vodafone having already publicly acknowledged they’re going to sell the iPhone “later this year” in Australia, the second question now revolves around when Telstra, with its superior network and fastest speeds, will also drop the iPhone bombshell. The third question? Who’ll offer the best value iPhone plan. But the first question is whether the iPhone will – or won’t – support the three major 3.5G standards of the world. Update: Also see my updated story, 'Quad-band 3G iPhone to 'qonquer' the world?' First, a bit of iPhone speculation that is Australia specific – but also relates to the rest of the world. With Telstra the Australian equivalent of the 800 pound gorilla that is AT&T in the United States, the Australian iPhone marketplace has not only become official, but so far excludes Telstra, the phone company with network coverage and speeds beyond compare, down under. Given the much faster speeds that the existing 2G iPhone can download data at when connected to the Internet via Wi-Fi, the speed boost that 3G provides will certainly take the iPhone to the next level and making it an even more useful Internet surfing device, while also making the download of music, movies, TV shows and applications happen very quickly indeed. Both Optus and Vodafone currently only have 3.5G networks that work ‘up to’ 3.6Mbps speeds across most capital cities in Australia, with the faster ‘up to’ 14.4Mbps class network from Vodafone due by the end of 2008, with Optus saying it will increase its network speeds to 28Mbps by late 2009 and will boost that to 42Mbps by 2010. While Vodafone is only saying 14.4Mbps by the end of 2008 for now, surely they too are eyeing future upgrades to get up to 42Mbps as well, probably by the same 2010 timeframe. That said, Telstra will still be in front, as it is now, thanks to its existing 14.4Mbps network that is already in place, with Telstra promising to upgrade Next G to 21Mbps by the end of the year, and double that to 42Mbps by the end of 2009, a year earlier than Optus. But while all these speed boosts are fantastic, the fastest speed for most of 2008 – in any country that offers a 3.5G iPhone – will be 7.2Mbps, because there aren’t any 14.4Mbps or faster devices just yet – and the iPhone will only be using a 7.2Mbps class chip, according to Zibri (of ZiPhone fame) who says an Infineon SH GOLD 3 chip will be used in the next iPhone. This chip has been renamed into the Infineon X-Gold 608 chip (which you can see a description of in this PDF), and it notes, in the chip diagram, that is has a “tripleband UMTS/HSDPA chip” inside. Does this tripleband chip mean 850MHz, 900Mhz and 2100Mhz? And why in the world is this so very, very important? Please read onto page 2. << First page <   1 2 3 Next page > Last page - Post your comment >>

 

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