Rumor: Austria will be Apple's 3G testing ground

Why would Austria be a testing country.
First, I agree with the statement that Apple never has tested product publicly.
Second, why Austria. It's not that usage of UMTS data (instead of GPRS) is particilarly higher in Austia. Nothern counties like Netherlands, UK, Scandinavian countries have a much higher penetration of UMTS usage.

And what about all the gossips about Italy, Belgium etc. who will introduce a 3g iPhone soon, in june etc.?

I'm from Austria, too, and I want to confirm these speculations. It makes perfectly sense to use austria as a testbe for 3G since we have 3G readily available. Several years ago, we had the first 3G only service provider (Hudchinson, known as "3" (read: "Drei", german for "three")) in Austria, and the network as now reached almost 100% coverage. I use their voice-, and datanetwork frequently, and I aussure you that I've had no drops whatsoever - even on the mountains in Tirol.

As soon as I can get my paws on an 3G iPhone or more infos, I'll be glad to report back.

That's great for Austria but will you be able to get a signal in a basement built by one's crazy father!

UMTS works in conjunction with HSDPA.

Well...i'm from Austria..but right now im in the U.S...and im happy that i got here cause i just got a MacBook Pro and my iPod touch about 7 months ago ;D

I personally don't think that they would test it in Austria. They don't even have an Apple Store over there (yes, they do have stores which sell some Apple stuff) and like other users said, since when does Apple publish something first somewhere else than the U.S.? Even if they would..i don't think that many people would buy an iPhone. I went to New York a few weeks ago...and damn! I've never seen soooo many iPhones!!!

Anyways...that's just my personal opinion. Of course, I wish thats true cause I'll go back at the end of June...would be the right timing ^^, right?

Um... "test country?"
As far as I know, Apple has never "tested" any product publicly. What a bunch of hooey. Total, complete nonsense.
Not only that, can anyone think of a single product, ever, that Apple released outside of America first? Not a one.

I notice they mention UMTS. Does this mean that the iPhone may not be HSDPA-capable? In my limited understanding of 3G technologies, I know HSDPA is a version of UMTS, but if it really was higher-speed, wouldn't they say that? Or in Europe is it assumed to support HSDPA? All I'm saying is, if the iPhone only supports the lower-speed UMTS, I'm gonna be real disappointed in Apple.

When was the last time Apple released a major new product to a market other than the U.S. first?

Think about this stuff before you give it any credence. These 3G iPhone rumors are just getting silly.

Hi, i'm from Austria

The original source of this news is www.derstandard.at which is a very reliable newspaper in Austria. I think this news could in deed be true, because Austria is known as one of the leading "UMTS-Countries" in Europe.

Hi i'am from austria. the phone provider t-mobile said that austria is a good 3G test-field and they are waiting for an 3G iphone (because current iphone sales are not very good). several newsportal than posted that austria will be the testcountry for the 3G iphone. imho this rumor is not correct! p.s. sorry for my bad english :)