Thursday, April 3, 2008 -- 7:30 p.m. -- at my desk

Sorry about the photo accompanying this post. They were all out of alphabet soup.

Here's something that I admit I haven't given a lot of thought to ... once a 3G iPhone comes out, it could come in different flavors -- as in speeds.

This is what we know: 3G is faster than EDGE, but not all 3G is built the same. There's HSDPA, which is fast and then there's HSPA which is even faster. This is specific to what AT&T offers; there are other flavors of mobile broadband like EVDO, but AT&T doesn't offer EVDO on the type of network it uses.

Think of the whole thing like all the different available speeds on your home Internet -- there's dial-up (EDGE) and there's DSL. And then there's Cable. And then services like Verizon's FIOS.

So what does this all mean for the iPhone? Don't know, but Electronista tries to put all the information into something that's easy to understand.

You can read that entry on its site here. The actual story is about how AT&T is in the process of completing the upgrades to its 3G network.

So now that there are different flavors, who knows which one we'll get from Apple and AT&T for the 3G iPhone. HSPA is faster, but it's available on next to no phones right now ... so could Apple set the bar even higher with even faster connection speeds? Or will it stick with what could be coined the EDGE equivalent of 3G -- the slower yet faster-than-EDGE HSDPA?

It remains to be seen. Hopefully, waiting for faster means we'll get the fastest. Even better would be a phone that can handle all of it, depending on where you are.

Stay tuned. And check out the Electronista article.

Thanks for calling.

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The next step up from HSDPA is HSUPA.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-Speed_Packet_Access

Typical first generation HSDPA devices offer a download speed of 3.6Mbps and an upload speed of 384Kbps. Second generation HSDPA devices offer a download speed of up to 7.2Mbps (and the same upload speed).

HSUPA (High Speed Uplink Packet Access) as its name suggests is mainly concerned with increasing the speed of uploads. While like HSDPA the standard supports various theoretical speeds, real world products and network offer in the region of 1.5 to 2 Mbps upload speed, they do however also offer a higher theoretical download speed as well (by including an improved HSDPA).

SCOTT'S REPLY: Thanks John and to the callers who have provided clarification on a confusing array of letters. Guaranteed I'll have my letters in order by the time new 3G iPhone comes out :-D

Scott,

As a bit of a clarification, HSPA (High Speed Packet Access) is a general term for a number of related 3G technologies. The first out the door was HSDPA (the "D" is for download), then HSUPA (the "U" was for faster uploads in addition to the fast downloads). AT&T has rolled out a lot of HSDPA and is rolling out 'UPA.

Once you get past HSUPA, most carriers will likely deploy something called HSPA+ to continue increasing speeds. At some point they will deploy "4G" tech like LTE.

For those that are interested I will be posting a series of Mobile 101 articles at FreshlyMobile.com.

I hope this helps clear up a confusing landscape.

David

www.freslymobile.com
a fresh look at mobility

SCOTT'S REPLY: Recommended read, callers. I would put something just like what David put together if I had a staff.

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