Love the iPhone but Endless Spin with EDGE--Will it Improve???

Question

I got the iPhone one week ago today and although I had a 30 hour wait for activation, all week I have absolutely loved everything about this wonderful product. I could not be more of a fan and have found many of the complaints of others, though obviously sincere, to be without substance in my case...except for ONE!
I can not believe how painfully slow the Internet Access is over the EDGE system. I am so tired of seeing that little Apple Star rotating in ENDLESS SPIN. If I am using WiFi it is fine, but the main idea of having this product for me was to be able to have access to the Internet when I was away from WiFi services!
Sometimes pages will not load at all and I just give up, other times they are so very slow that it becomes hopeless to try to browse or make any use of the connection, and this applies to Safari, Weather, E-mail, Google, and all the other features that connect to the Web.
I am not saying that EDGE does not work at all, or am I suggesting there is any flaw with the iPhone, I assume it has to do with the network, with traffic, or whatever. But my question is, are others having this problem to a degree that it is making you feel depressed about the otherwise wonderful product and its performance? And more important, will it improve?
Do we have any official word on that or even any acknowledgement from Apple or AT&T that there is a problem and that things will get better?
I have recommended this phone to many friends but I have to honestly tell them that this is a problem and if they drop their Blackberry and other services they need to consider this first. I have not used one of the other phones so I have no idea if they are better or worse in this area but I know the iPhone can not be successful without a good Internet connection. The whole idea makes no sense without it!
James

Answer 1

The short answer is really NO. EDGE speed will not get faster. IN fact, it has sped up over the past two months to the maximum in most areas. It is indeed true that some areas have slightly higher speeds than others, but none are super fast. 3G runs at 4 - 5 times the speed of EDGE. My EDGE service either here in Ann Arbor/Detroit or last weekend in NYC never has gone above 160 (some report upto 220 in some areas elsewhere). My old Blackjack 3G phone would never be slower than 880, and usually in the 1200 range most of the time).
That being said, I had a 3G phone from ATT which I hated even though it was fast. I am willing to take the compromise on EDGE for now.
A few hints:
- Edge speed seems to be faster in the early morning and in the evening than during the day when everyone is logging on - if you have wifi at work, switch over to that
- Set up mobile favorites rather than full internet sites -- they work about as fast as the 3G guy next to you on EDGE...for example, I have set up on my phone:
- m.yahoo.com
- m.yahoo.com/p/sports
- mobileapp.espn.go.com/wireless/espn/redesign/index
- webologistdesign.com/gomovies/demo/index.php
- m.USAToday.com
- m.NYTimes.com
IN order, I can check all my mobile favorites on yahoo, my selected yahoo sports teams, anything on ESPN, movies by zipcode (a clever app someone on this web site created!), USA Today, and the NY Times.
There are a lot of mobile (m) websites designed over the years to work with cell phones that are really fast and zippy and give you all the data you need without all the advertisements and photos that take up a lot of time to load on EDGE. Check your favorite websites and you will probably find a mobile version as well. You can even set up a mobile Google site that only looks up mobile websites when you seek data.
Finally, another idea - for those who want their sports scores, ATT has notification text messages you can set up for your favorite teams that will send you the scores at the end of innings, quarters, halftime, or at the end of a game. Pick the teams you want and have the scores sent to you with SMS without any internet lookup time needed. You can turn them on or off as you want from ATT's website.