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Official iPhone 4 thread (1 Viewer)

mattCR

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Nelson:


ATT is in the middle (right now) of spending $19B to upgrade all of their cell sites to be LTE ready 3G platforms. What this means is, as they say here:


http://www.att.com/gen/press-room?cdvn=news&newsarticleid=30493&pid=4800


Everything gets prepped this year, and they start turning over LTE in 2011.

http://gizmodo.com/5468470/att-to-deploy-4g-lte-network-in-2011


To give a comparison:


HSPA 7.2: 7Mbps (tops), this is 3.5G, basically as some call it.


LTE: 140Mbps - 300Mbps.


Verizon plans to have all the top 25 markets covered by years end with LTE, and top 50 by the end of 2011, with nationwide completion by 2013.
ATT plans to have "test markets" (unnamed) online this year, Top 30 markets by June 1, 2011, Top 50 by December 2011, and all complete by 2013.


Both networks are screaming toward 4G as fast as they can go.


Meanwhle, ATT while prepping the sites with new fiber runs, is supposedly taking a chunk of money and eliminating all remaining 2G towers (EDGE) by upgrading them to 3G.
 

Ronald Epstein

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You guys should read this article.


Click Here


Very interesting comparison between 3G and 4G.


Article suggests that AT&T 3G will be faster than

the 4G that will be available thanks to upgrades the

provider is doing to their networks.


I am still torn about iPhone 4. I'll have to pay full

price for it knowing that next year there will be a
4G version of it.


...oh the decisions the decisions.
 

Nelson Au

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Thanks Matt, Ron!


That was a lot of reading, especially the AT&T page! It gave me a much better understanding of what is going on with the 3G network now and it's move to 3.5g by AT&T. That sounded very cool. And it sounded like a smart move. It should allow current iPhone users and other smartphones and iPhone 4 users to really take advantage of the 3g network when it goes to 3.5g.


What I also took away was a more realistic view of the cell networks given I've never had a smartphone. I was surprised to read that 3g speeds could be faster then 4g when 4g comes out. But for what I do, which doesn't include playing games on-line, I will be fine. I might stream video, but I don't want to do that via 3g if I can avoid it. But for my work, I may need to download enclosures of documents.


So it was good to see what is realistic, given that 4g could not be fully implemented for a couple of years. Sort of like HDTV, it took some time to fully transition. But in this case, 3g will continue concurrently with 4g for a while and I guess longer before being phased out.


I tend to hold onto my stuff a long time, my Razor is 5 years old! And my first cell phone I had for 5 years. So if I get the iPhone 4, I could keep it past the 2 year contract.

Thanks again for the info, I have a much better understanding of the coming 4g tech and I feel better about jumping onto the iPhone 4.
 

DaveF

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Originally Posted by Nelson Au

This feels like the right time for me to jump in and get the iPhone. It's one of the few Apple products I don't have!

One thing is nagging at me and I hope you experienced guys can help me understand. Is AT&T really going to have their 4g network running in a year, what is the speculation for how much better a 4g iPhone could be?
DaveF's 1st Law of Computers has an iPhone corollary: The best time to buy an iPhone is always next Summer :)


Speaking for myself (and my wife), the 3GS was the first iPhone mature enough to be worth our money. Since we budgeted for it in 2010, I chose to wait for #4 to time to buy our first iPhone. Now, we need this upgrade. We can't wait another year for a phone upgrade. Even if the iPhone 5 brings 4G to our city next year, I can't wait another 12 months for the next super phone. But, my calculation is my area won't see 4G until 2012 or later.
 

Robert Crawford

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Originally Posted by Ronald Epstein


Very interesting comparison between 3G and 4G.


Article suggests that AT&T 3G will be faster than

the 4G that will be available thanks to upgrades the

provider is doing to their networks.


I am still torn about iPhone 4. I'll have to pay full

price for it knowing that next year there will be a
4G version of it.


...oh the decisions the decisions.

It's just a phone!
 

Shane D

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some of you might find this interesting in the apple forums with the new caps.

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2450738&start=0&tstart=0


some people are finding out while they are asleep thier phones are sending data somewhere and pushing quickly over 200 mbs
 

Nelson Au

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Sure, I don't want to wait any longer either. And if 3g is going to get better before 4g kicks in, the current tech will work great on that network.


What was not said in Job's keynote was whether the iPhone 4 may be 4g compatible. Maybe it has it built in, but he didn't say. Or will it be enabled by software? It will be interesting to see what comes of this.
 

DaveF

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I don't know anything about cellphone radios to speculate whether this phone could support 4G (with a firmware upgrade).



So BestBuy is going to sell the iPhone 4. Anyone know if they're doing pre-orders? With their Rewards Zone plan and Rewards Zone credit card, this would save me a few bucks on the hardware purchase.
 

Shane D

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i'd love to have one. but im stuck on verizon. i was ready to spend 300 monday on the offchance the V phone came out.
 

Nelson Au

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Dave, my local news reported that the iPhone would be at Best Buy. They said each store will be allotted 15 of the 32gb model and 15 of the 16gb model. So get in line early!
 

DaveF

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Originally Posted by Nelson Au

Dave, my local news reported that the iPhone would be at Best Buy. They said each store will be allotted 15 of the 32gb model and 15 of the 16gb model. So get in line early!

Barring issues with switching carriers and porting #s, I'm pre-ordering so Mr. Postman brings them to me. :) If BB doesn't have a pre-order system, I'll eat the $24 I could save and buy from Apple like I originally planned.
 

Todd H

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I'm going to give the HD video recording a good workout in September when I take the family to Disney World. I'm hoping it's good enough that I can save some space and leave the photo camera and video camera at home.
 

Ken Chan

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Originally Posted by DaveF


You could even argue that the consensus among owners is that being a phone is what iPhone is worst at. Not that it's horrible, but compared to all the other superlative features, the phone is disappointing, especially with AT&T.
 

DaveF

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Wait, the iPhone does phone calls? Wow, that's a great bonus feature! I was buying it for the mobile web and music and games and calendar management.
 

Nelson Au

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I'm really curious about Shane's post above, I read through most of the linked thread on the Apple forums. That is amazing the phone is calling home in the middle of the night and sending out data, which will be eating into the limited plan I'll be signing up for!


Maybe it's something that will go away for the new iPhone.
 

DaveF

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Likewise. I don't even understand the problem. Some people suggest it's sending large amounts of data. Others say it's sending reports of large data transfers. What I know is that if the iPhone is consuming 25% of a 200MB plan on "dark matter" transfers, people won't stand for it. It will get fixed, either by software or billing changes.
 

DaveF

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Is there any particular problem with signing up for AT&T with Apple's online system and then adding on a corporate discount afterwards? I would assume not. But browsing MacRumors there were some complaints that this was a major problem in the past.



Some other browsing shows people are getting their discounts on data plans, too, contrary to initial reports otherwise.
 

KeithAP

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I just checked my usage and it doesn't show any of the mysterious activity that some people noticed on their phones at the Apple support link.


-KeithP
 

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