Carriers blaming Apple for iPhone 3G slowness

Hello, I decided to run a little test and see what I could find out about the iPhone 3G issue. I have an iPhone 3G with NetShare (tethering app) and I also have an AirCard 875U connected to my MacBook. Now I know that this isn't exactly a fair comparison but I decided to see what the difference was in speed between the AirCard 3G - USB connection on my Mac and the 3G - WiFi connection would be.

Results:

AirCard 875U:
Down: 1814 kbps
Up: 350 kbps

iPhone 3G:
Down: 937 kbps
Up: 299 kbps

I wish I could do an exact apples to apples comparison, but this is about as good as I can get it.

I know that in a post above a gentleman wrote about how 3G utilizes CDMA and shares bandwidth among all of the users who are attached and pulling data across the tower at that moment, but I think my test is valid even in the face of this bandwidth utilization fact. I tested five times on both platforms (3G AirCard and iPhone Tethered) and the results I have above are the averages across those 10 tests. Also I know it is unlikely that I am running into bandwidth oversubscription issues coming off the tower as the tower I am connected to is connected via 1 Gig Fiber for wireless backhaul and I can monitor the traffic from the backhaul device.

In closing I really don't want to say anything disparaging about Apple, but I feel the facts truly speak for themselves here. If this is an issue that can be resolved with software or if it is indeed a failure of the ASIC that is being used for the 3G radio I don't know. All I can say is it certainly would be lovely to hit 1.814 Mbps from my iPhone.

Scott

Isn't that the Infineon Raceway logo?

It's okay, because in another month or so Apple will release the real 3G iPhone...

As honest an oversight as it may be, spelling "Sydney" as "Sidney" is just not on for a blog site like TUAW - or is it now?

And I find it extremely hard to believe that carrier/s only got the iPhone 3G handset for "carrier testing" a day before its inaugural launch. Granted that Apple has their own way of doing things. But a situation like that wouldn't make any sense, in any position - whether it was the carrier or the handset maker

Run a speed test over 3G at like 4 in the morning. I pull down more than 1000kbps in speed. The problem is clearly network capacity and not the phone itself.

Are you serious? You're offended by a mis-spelling? It's not like he called you a bunch of kangaroo humping, boomarang throwing, funny talking apes or something.
Lighten up crocodile dundee

Only joking, but seriously it's just a typo. Ease up..

I don't have reception problems (Manhattan/Stamford, CT) and the speeds, at least in the morning when fewer people are using the 3G network peak at 1.4Mbit/s (Damn I hate those Down Under or in Europe getting 6.5Mbit/s). The story is different during the day but that is hardly surprising as more people share available bandwidth.

In a businessweek article Samsung is quoted (by Infineon) as using the same chipset and having no problems. I think we can expect a firmware upgrade to improve how the iPhone interprets the signal quality. It feels as if a few people are indeed having problems (or interpret the loss of bars as loss of signal--bar display is not precise I find) and everybody is jumping in shouting "Me too."

I'm surprised at the reported issues. I have had ZERO problems in metro-Atlanta. Sure, there are a few areas where my 3G signal is considerably lower than EDGE, but I have yet to experience slowness or dropped calls on AT&T's 3G network.

Not sure if this has anything to do with the data being slow, but my iPhone 3G is really slow to pick up a signal. When I'm in a no signal area (which seems to happen a lot since switching to AT&T from Verizon) and I head into an area I know has signal (such as outside of a building), my iPhone will sometimes take a minute (yes 60 seconds) or more to catch a signal.

I tried to tip TUAW about the real source of the problem (notwithstanding that Apple may also have chipset problems), in that 3G networks use CDMA, which gives a total of 7.2Mbps download for ALL users on the same cell. It doesn't matter if you have the greatest of signals, or if you sit right under a mast - you will get your share of bandwidth out of the total, split evenly amongst all other users. And, if the operators prioritize voice over data, then your piece will be even smaller. EDGE on the other hand assigns slots PER USER, which means that nobody gets to take a chunk out of mine - the network may give me less, but it will be stable. I wrote a post on my blog about this issue: http://tinyurl.com/5tv3e4