3G enabled phone on a non 3G network
 

Sometime back I had an argument with a guy who wrote raving reviews about the HTC Hero (GSM version) in US. I told him it's worthless here because of no compatible 3G freq in US. But he then argued it was just a mere annoyance rather than a deal breaker.

But for me it was always so. I changed to TMo from ATT just because I wanted the N900 and HD2. So my question is, is 3G for you guys a deal breaker. if not why?

PS:- For me though it seams black and white. I get about 1.5 Mbps constant now I can't get anything close to that with EDGE so how this not be a deal breaker?

Re: 3G enabled phone on a non 3G network
 

Edge is fast enough for me so no. I've done plenty of work over Edge without issue. Only reason for 3G that I can think of is if you want to stream videos a lot, which I don't care about.

Re: 3G enabled phone on a non 3G network
 

The N90 is the first device I have owned that would give me full 3G speeds. All my prior devices were non-USA models or designed for AT&T (6630, E61i (HK), E71 (Singapore), N97) so on T-Mobile I'd only get EDGE. You can certainly survive it but it is lovely being able to stream BBC World Service in the car ;)

Re: 3G enabled phone on a non 3G network
 

I just tried sending an picture through mail (was about 1MB), I was in a place with sketchy 3G. It took forever to send the mail.

Also for web browsing... don't you feel the diff?

Re: 3G enabled phone on a non 3G network
 

Also when the updates came, I was just able to download it in office and get it running. I would imagine this would have been a pain over EDGE.

Another example... I just saw a good theme. I can't connect my phone to my office laptop so I just sent an email and picked it up... the theme is over 5MB... no way on EDGE

Re: 3G enabled phone on a non 3G network
 

Not really. I've even joked that with everyone going to 3G, Edge has gotten faster. :)

I have downloaded 277 megs over Edge thus far. Works fine.

Re: 3G enabled phone on a non 3G network
 

I run into some QoS issues on AT&T's Edge, with Skype and my SIP client, as well as streaming internet radio, despite being in a "full signal" region. If and when there is any sling support for the 900, I can't imagine it being sufficient.

As stated, I fare better on T-Mo's 3G.

Re: 3G enabled phone on a non 3G network
 

Could live with edge, but won't :D

Re: 3G enabled phone on a non 3G network
 

Well you get what you pay for 3g cost over 2x as much as Edge, if they were the same cost then the argument would be a lot harder to say its ok to have "just edge" I cant speak for the general user but for me I only need internet for ocasional forum browsing and email, all my streaming needs are limited to my laptop, the N900 has everything I want to see/hear already inside its internal memory.

I actually do not even use Edge yet, I am thinking about it reason being my tight budget and fact that I am in a wifi area 99% of the day. I would almost never need GSM internet.

Re: 3G enabled phone on a non 3G network
 

I'm using Edge on AT&T. I remember back in the day when it would take 2-3 hours to download a couple megs. Did it the other day in two minutes on Edge. No complaints.

Re: 3G enabled phone on a non 3G network
 

If you're responding to me, directly, as a network/VoIP engineer, I'm very well aware of your point however I was providing the OP "real world" experiences, so a more informed decision can be made.

"Data rates" for Edge should be more than sufficient to handle a VoIP call, but again, the quality of signal doesn't seem up to snuff on AT&T, at least in my area (Balt/DC corridor).

Re: 3G enabled phone on a non 3G network
 

To me 3G/3.5G is only slightly faster than 2G/2.5G, so it's not a deal breaker. Whether 3G or 2G I try to keep the amount of data as low as absolutely possible, because there's cost/megabyte to take into account.