iPhone shows "E" in plain ol' GPRS coverage?
By Chris Ziegler 
posted Sep 19th 2007 1:59PM
posted Sep 19th 2007 1:59PM
We reckon this topic's going to heat up immensely as O2's EDGE and iPhone rollouts cross paths in the next few weeks, but at the moment, it's really only applicable to the privileged few sporting unlocked examples in their European pockets: what happens when you're covered by GPRS, not EDGE? AT&T's done a pretty good job of blanketing its entire coverage area with the so-called 2.5G tech, so we really haven't had an opportunity to test GPRS operation of the iPhone (thank goodness) here -- but tech.am is reporting that an unlocked unit on Vodafone Spain still shows the "E" symbol in the status bar with nary an EDGE signal to be found. Did Apple get the memo that the "E" actually stands for something?
Emergency Calls only?
Everything but 3G?
They should've watched Nokia a bit closer....they show 4 different symbols for GPRS, EDGE, UMTS (3G) and HSDPA (3.5G)
I have discovered the same thing here in HOLLAND, where I'm on the KPN Network, who actualled phased out EDGE last year......
Why would ANY network pull EDGE? It makes sense to me once a network has GPRS, they should ultimately upgrade to EDGE, and UMTS/HSDPA/HSUPA. In turn, they hould turn off the GPRS and NOT EDGE.
GPRS is a capacity hog and is not as fast as EDGE. However, I also realize that not all European networks upgraded to EDGE (not a smart move I think) where as American ones did. When T-Mobile here launches UMTS I hope they disconnect the GPRS and keep EDGE building out.
I've had my iPhone for several weeks now with an American (AT&T) contract. Because I live in the Netherlands my iPhone always is in Global Roaming mode. Up to now I've been able to use the Data services on every network that has GPRS coverage (also in Germany, England, France and Belgium) and Yes, it shows up as an 'E' on the display.
Here in the Netherlands (better known to Americans as Amsterdam!) GPRS works fine on the iphone and with T-mobile (as the service department told me) it's possible to have faster GPRS up to 124Kbps for 19.95 euro a month.
Not fast, but all oke enough for Mail, RSS-feeds and Stocks and Weather.
How about checking to see if an ATT iphone changes status... you are using a hacked device - dont expect it to behave properly.
Here in Germany, using an unlocked Phone, i am on E-Plus. They don't even have EDGE-Coverage. So I can only use GPRS, but iPhone always displays the E - even though being on GPRS, and my carrier not even supporting edge :)
How usable is the iPhone on a GPRS network? Totally unusable?
Just interested.
It is actually very usable, I was reading this post while on the train, and it loads pretty fast.
'E' stands for "excruciatingly slow"
Yeah, my iPhone on T-Mobile UK shows up the E. I'd prefer it if it said G but I don't think that's possible. Maybe with the upcoming international options in firmware 1.1.1 this'll be changed.
And it's pretty good over GPRS: not perfect, but still good.
I know that all the terms are really just quasi marketing anyway but I believe that EDGE is actually 2.75G - 2.5G is plain old GPRS.
e=mc^2, sorry but someone had to do it...