3G a Possibility

[kashbo25]

I was @ work messing around with my iPhone I had this phone since the 29th and I just found out about the sim card, how; I messed around with the little circle on top of the phone and I inserted a paperclip in it, out pops a sim card with a 3g logo. So I was thinking maybe att will upgrade from edge to 3g soon?

 

[Platinum]

All AT&T / Cingular cards have had the 3g on them for some time now.

 

[Norwest]

No. All the new ATT SIMS have the 3G logo on them. The iPhone doesn't have the hardware for 3G.

 

[kashbo25]

No. All the new ATT SIMS have the 3G logo on them. The iPhone doesn't have the hardware for 3G.

oh ok Thanks theres something i learned today

 

[kdarling]

Some reasons they give out 3G SIMs include:

• They allow the phone to verify it's connecting to a real network.
• They hold more contact info.
• They can be used in a 3G phone later on.

 

[mlass]

No. All the new ATT SIMS have the 3G logo on them. The iPhone doesn't have the hardware for 3G.

Sorry, it has the hardware. Infineon chips in the phone are 3G capable.

 

[kashbo25]

Sorry, it has the hardware. Infineon chips in the phone are 3G capable.

woah! so who do I believe?

 

[Twinnie]

Maybe it just has a couple of chips in it that are compatible with 3G functions. Doesn't mean it has a 3G radio, I believe it'd need one. In those things where they opened up the iPhone I seem to remember there was a fair amount in there that they didn't recognize.

I always thought there might be a slim possibility that the iPhone may still have 3G hardware that just needs a firmware update to activate. Maybe they just had issues with it, like the battery life, that they thought could be solved before they released the update to turn it on. They didn't really need to advertise it as a feature since the phone has enough hype to sell it for now and it'd make sense to put it in there if they plan to sell the same phone in Europe and Asia. This phone would flop in UK and Japan if it didn't have 3G, by putting the hardware on the phone and activating it later Jobs would save pissing off Americans and he'd still get these markets. There also may have been issues regarding AT&T and their 3G coverage, either they didn't wanna give out unlimited 3G (and Jobs hoped he could talk them into it) or a 3G enabled iPhone would highlight AT&T's crap 3G coverage. Maybe it'd be to buy AT&T some time to blitz out some 3G coverage and then Jobs could enable the hardware and make up any excuse he wanted.

Personally though I don't anticipate any of that. I think he's just gonna release a non-3G iPhone in Europe and Asia and it'll fall flat on it's face. I bet he'd rather do that than lose the loyalty of his US fanbase.

 

[mlass]

My believe is that 3G was not activated, due do the fact it would be $40 a month for the Data Plan versus $20 with the current iPhone Data plan. Also, battery life would be shorter when using it a lot on 3G.

How many people would buy an iPhone then?

My LG CU500 had a $20 Media Max Plan and when they caught you using the 3G for other Internet Use (tether a laptop) you went to a $40 PDA Plan. My HTC8525 had a $40 Data Plan and my current Black Jack has a $40 Data Plan.

I don't think At&t is not wanting to roll 3G and charge $40 a month, but I believe At&t sees more customer willing to spend $20 a month on EDGE.

 

[rollinfromhell]

My believe is that 3G was not activated, due do the fact it would be $40 a month for the Data Plan versus $20 with the current iPhone Data plan. Also, battery life would be shorter when using it a lot on 3G.

How many people would buy an iPhone then?

My LG CU500 had a $20 Media Max Plan and when they caught you using the 3G for other Internet Use (tether a laptop) you went to a $40 PDA Plan. My HTC8525 had a $40 Data Plan and my current Black Jack has a $40 Data Plan.

I don't think At&t is not wanting to roll 3G and charge $40 a month, but I believe At&t sees more customer willing to spend $20 a month on EDGE.

It has the hardware that's capable of 3G. I've talked to a few people about it, and WJP09 has told me that it has a chip in it thats capable of 3G, Flash, and has a GPS.

 

[digitalfx]

It has the hardware that's capable of 3G. I've talked to a few people about it, and WJP09 has told me that it has a chip in it thats capable of 3G, Flash, and has a GPS.

you forgot about the pencil sharpener

 

[Twinnie]

iPhone doesn't have proper GPS, though it does have a way of triangulating it's approximate position. It uses the transmitter towers to figure out what area it's in. Don't get excited about it, mobiles phones have been doing this for years and years, it's so that emergency services can locate people quicker and it'll never be used with Google Maps or anything. It's just required by law to get FCC approval, same in other countries and I'd also assume you need to be making a call for it to work. My mate used to have a feature on his phone where he'd text a network operator number and they'd text back telling him what city he was in, nice gimmick but bloody useless.

 

[OJsakila]

O my goodness. There is no 3g capabilities on this phone. European version will be 3g active. But the network in Europe is completely different. 3g in America is no where near that of its European counterpart. Plus 3g eats up the battery and the phone will ne substanally bigger in size to accomadate the larger 3g chip. Hope this clears up any missunderstanding with the us iPhone and soon to be released iPhone in Germany from tmobile. And no, your contract will prohibit you from using either one on its counterpart's network for a predetermined amount of time.

 

[digitalfx]

3G is available in most major cities. I travel frequently and I usually always have 3G access, when its not available it reverts to EDGE.
The idea that 3G is not fully available in the US as a reason its not in the iPhone is a crock of sh*t...not only is it 5-8 times faster, but you can talk on the phone and surf the web or email at the same time. This alone is the thing I really miss the most.

 

[kdarling]

Good grief, Charlie Brown. This thread is a prime example of why non-engineers should avoid discussing technical topics.

Sure, the Infineon chip has the capabilities of hooking to a GPS, 3G coprocessors, and speeding up Java. Which is useless, since the iPhone has no GPS, 3G coproc, or Java.

Likewise, the chip can be used to interface to a keypad and SD memory chips, neither of which the iPhone has. Just because it can support something, doesn't mean it's there.

As for location awareness, yes AT&T uses the tower location method for 911 calls. However, this method means the cell phone itself normally has no idea where it is, since it has no knowledge of what the towers are doing to find it.

 

[digitalfx]

but it DOES have a pencil sharpener

 

[dietPEPSI]

It has the hardware that's capable of 3G. I've talked to a few people about it, and WJP09 has told me that it has a chip in it thats capable of 3G, Flash, and has a GPS.

And you believe that? WJP09 just looks for internet fame on here so he pretends to know what hes talking about.....

Here you go rollinfromhell, a couple of days ago i took apart my phone to see what it had inside of it....it had an IR thing so it can be used as a universal remote, It also had a satellite dish in it and in a few days Apple is releases a new service which lets you stream live tv to your phone...

 

[mobilehavoc]

I guess I'll post the most obvious reason it doesn't have 3G...if it did do you really think Apple would keep this a secret rather than shout out loud about it and have 10x as many people buy it?

Grow up.

 

[Twinnie]

I hope you're right about Euro 3G, but I still don't know whether to get one.

 

[Maaz]

man you people just need to admit it your 600 dollar phone is not capable of it.