Comments on: iPhone: Does 3G Matter to You?

By: Doug Mitchell

Doug Mitchell — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 14:31:10 +0000

We Des Moines’ers have been told that 3G will be here “sometime this summer” so at least we’ll get to have the whole 3G experience before the weather turns chilly again.

By: Naor

Naor — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 12:35:33 +0000

I agree about the europe coverage (also here in Israel) – 3G is everywhere, yet keep in in mind that 3G as a whole is not a “huge” success, operator are striving to have something that will make people use (aka spend money) iPhone (because technology, because hype….) starting to look like a “killer device” (rather then killerapp). I guess apple heard it from Orange, Vodafone et. al. and together with it’s enterprise oriented initiatives (e.g. exchange, vpn) the 3G iphone can be a great business sector money generator

By: Lasse Rintakumpu

Lasse Rintakumpu — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 08:14:11 +0000

Ditto every European comment.

By: Maarten

Maarten — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 07:00:37 +0000

Maybe 3G doesn’t matter to you. But here in the Netherlands 3G quite normal. Having an iPhone without 3G is crazy.

By: neil

neil — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 06:43:09 +0000

Here in Europe, 3G and unlimited data plans are vital. And help explain why the iPhone sales have been minimal to date. Now we’re waiting to see what the pricing plans will be here….

By: Todd Sieling

Todd Sieling — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 03:49:28 +0000

The 3G isn’t the big draw for me. Legitimate availability in Canada is, though looking back I should have gone the unlocked route. It wasn’t worth waiting a year.

By: Nancy Nally

Nancy Nally — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 02:29:34 +0000

I’ve been ranting about this the past two weeks on our True Tech Life podcast – first in the WWDC preview and then in the special episode we did last night about the keynote announcements.

JamesVG is right – there are 12 states without 3G coverage and other states that supposedly have it only have it in about 2 metro areas and that is it. Where I live we don’t have it. And yet if we become a 2 iPhone family by buying a second one and try to do a family plan you can bet AT&T will probably ding us for the upgrade to 3G service on the plan we already have. That’s $10 a month more for service we don’t even HAVE.

By: wes

wes — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 01:52:08 +0000

I’ve a first-gen iPhone, and I’m leaning towards not upgrading, even though I’m in the SF Bay area. AT&T’s EDGE coverage is spotty, and a bit worse recently. I also have a BlackJack on AT&T (for work email), and 3G coverage on it isn’t really that much different.

Current iPhone owners get the software upgrade for free, so the only hw features in the new iPhone are 3G, GPS, and longer battery life, right? I’m not sure those are worth the extra $10/month data plan.

Hm.

By: Buck

Buck — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 23:47:17 +0000

I can say from experience that, even when you’re in a city with 3G coverage, it’s not 100%. For example, from the front of my house I have a weak 3G connection. Move to the rear and I’m back on EDGE. Aweful.

By: JamesVG

JamesVG — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 22:36:07 +0000

Good eye. From my count, there's still 12 entire states that don't have 3G coverage from AT&T. List of AT&T 3G Coverage