what are your typical 3g speeds??

Those sound like wireless speeds, not 3G speeds. I've never seen more than 500 kbps on 3G. I considered that pretty good because it's 2-3 times faster than my usual Edge speed.

Someone needs to interpret this for me because I don't know if its good or not, but here goes:

On 3G I got 1.19 Mbps (1164 Kbps/142 kB/s) download speed. 0.25 Mbps (250 Kbps/31 kB/s) upload speed.

Wifi I got 1.3 Mbps (1302 Kbps/159 kB/s) download speed and 0.28 Mbps (276 Kbps/34 kB/s) upload speed.

Edge: 0.16 Mbps (160 Kbps/20 kB/s) download; 0.02 Mbps (22 Kbps/3 kB/s) upload speed

900kbps - 1.5mbps average

1.34mbps on 3G. It's not as fast as the device is theoretically capable of, but to be honest who cares? I can't think of anything you need >1mbps for on a mobile device. Certainly nothing that wouldn't involve breaking the terms of your contract anyway...

Ed.

I don't think that there are "typical" 3g speeds. I'm in Baltimore and mine vary all over the place. Yesterday for much of the time I was getting below 200kbps, slower than edge a few times. Today on one occasion I got 1.43Mbps. Who knows what's supposed to be "typical"?!!
John

I have been very impressed with the 3G performance here in Dallas.
Here is a screen shot.

Today's been a good day in Baltimore, but never any speeds like that. We've had the tropical storm moving through, maybe that sped things up a little but not that much!

AT&T recently moved their HQ to Dallas, and it shows too. You get complete 3G coverage and it shows. I have noticed that in Dallas, reception and signal strength is excellent when driving. Performance is exceptional. Average signal strength is 3 bars and usually reaches 5. In buildings though, reception typically drops to 2 or 3 bars, maybe less. Then it may switch to EDGE under heavy use. Overall, I agree that 3G speeds are great in the DFW area.
But you are getting 2Mbs down, which is amazing in itself. That's around one third of AT&T's fastest DSL home internet packages here, which tops at 6Mbps (giving you about 5.2Mbs down). That right there is some real broadband speed.

One thing I noticed that as long as I am on 3G, I am still getting pretty fast speeds. EDGE is noticeably slower, but 3G seems fast regardless of how many bars the iPhone registers. And so I wonder why so many people are complaining about the 3G network. If the majority of users are getting between 500kbps-1000kbps, then you are getting decent performance. Beyond that and you're getting really good service. Some people think that if the signal strength doesn't come in at 5 bars, it's bad, but it doesn't seem to make much of a difference really. If the network is strained, it's strained, and can be fixed. But if some of us can get 2Mbs down, then we know the iPhones are working properly. Just my take.

-MacUser

Does anyone know what the official specification is for this device regarding HSDPA? The HSDPA specification includes devices that can go to 14.4Mbits/s but majority of networks are using either HSDPA at 1.8 or 3.6Mbits/s. Not sure if the iphone is limited to a max speed?

I achieved 2.5Mbits/s, suspect I was beside a base station as I usually struggle to manage any 3G signal in 100% 3G areas on my iphone.

Remember that these speeds will vary depending on the number of users accessing the same cell site. They will drop as more and more users connect to the same access point.

While the tech specs for HSDPA may go up to the 14 megs as you suggest, the actual networks may not have that type of power to allow that sort of speed. The speed is only limited by the network connection. I'm sure that the actual iPhone hardware is capable of faster speeds.

If you are getting around 2.5Mbps then you are getting very good performance for this sort of device. Again, speed is dependent on the network, or so one would think, so it just depends on where you are, your proximity to a cell tower, and the neighboring interference in the area. Until AT&T rolls out an even more powerful network here in the States, then speeds will probably stay the same. Adding more and more users may strain the network, but it may not impact the speed as much as you'd think. There are millions of other 3G (and EDGE) devices operating on these GSM-based networks all over the place, so it's not just the iPhone.

-MacUser

On the GSM association web site it states that the iphone max HSDPA speed is 3.6Mbps, this is limited by the chipset. The networks also limit max speed to avoid the base stations limiting the number of users making connections, not much good if 2 people were getting 3.6Mbps if another 10 were unable to connect. In urban areas the number of users will have a major impact on speeds, the network then need to roll out more base stations to increase bandwidth.

AT&T has a limit of 3.6Mbps on their network according to the GSM association.

ARealMac(PPC)User wrote:
But if some of us can get 2Mbs down, then we know the iPhones are working properly. Just my take.

-MacUser

3G data speeds and receiver sensitivity are different things, the majority of users complaining about the iphone on the 3G reception thread have been experiencing poor receiver sensitivity. I can get high data speeds on a 3G connection with one bar (-113dBm) but if I lose a couple of dbm then this connection drops and pushes me back to GPRS or EDGE and very low data rates. If the receiver performance was better then I might get 3 bars (-80dbm), with this level I would expect the 3G data connection to stay up, even with 3-5 bars I might still only get 0.7Mbps (data rates depend on cell usage).

"AT&T has a limit of 3.6Mbps on their network according to the GSM association."

Well maybe that is why. I know that more users will spread out the connections, which in turn will divide the speeds among them. I'm just saying that the network could be responsible for it. If the chipset really is limited to that point, it may have been engineered that way. It was custom built, if what I've seen is true. Just guessing.
Now if AT&T ups their network speeds and rolls out more towers, then faster data will come easier and more consistently as you suggest. It's only a matter of time for this to happen; AT&T has been constantly improving their 3G network in order to provide their services to more and more customers.

-MacUser

It may not be the iPhones though. From my observations, the networks may be the problem. Many users reporting issues are either in large cities or places with lower 3G coverage. This is just an assumption though. Plus, those Swedish techs ran some tests on the iPhone hardware and found it to be operating normally. They average around 2Mbps over there, but this may be due to the fact that in Europe, 3G networks have been a standard for much longer; 3G is much newer in the US, and has not had as much time to mature.

I think interference has a lot to do with it. I have experienced a lot of interference in my home as well as some other areas, like the mall that contains my local Apple Store. Yet I can go to a much larger mall in the middle of town and get excellent coverage both inside the center and out. I've gotten 5 bars in the parking garage. And when using the phone during these periods of strong signal readings, I get quick performance, just as expected.

I know that signal readings do not really affect the actual speed of the connection. Speed really depends on each user and the location, as well as the network (I feel like I keep repeating the same thing over and over, but I believe this to be true 😉 ). I think that most iPhones are working properly, but I could be wrong. Some iPhones have had serious problems, I bet. I'm just stating my thoughts based on experiences and on some articles I have been reading.

-MacUser

Downtown Manhattan Saturday Afternoon

Download

3G: 1174 Kbps
wifi: 5541 Kbps
edge: 142 Kbps