AT&T and HSDPA

[90GT50]

Does AT&T use this service? Supposed to be up to 9 times faster than 3G in certain areas, not sure how the service is around here. Anybody know for sure?

[90GT50]

I guess that's a no, heh. FWIW, I found a good connection on the way home and tested out the dl speeds, seemed a little quicker than 3G, but it's rare by my house to find a good connection for it, it connected to 3G more often.

[Sean Park]

Yes, AT&T does provide HSDPA and yes, Fort Worth is "blue" so you should be getting a solid download speed. I can't speak for FW, but in Dallas, S.A., and Houston I typically see 1.3-1.5 mbps down.

You can't really say that HSDPA is "nine times faster than 3G" since HSDPA essentially is 3G, now GPRS/EDGE on the other hand... Chances are that you are on HSDPA, your phone just may not display that fact. What device are you using?

[90GT50]

[QUOTE=Sean Park]Yes, AT&T does provide HSDPA and yes, Fort Worth is "blue" so you should be getting a solid download speed. I can't speak for FW, but in Dallas, S.A., and Houston I typically see 1.3-1.5 mbps down.

You can't really say that HSDPA is "nine times faster than 3G" since HSDPA essentially is 3G, now GPRS/EDGE on the other hand... Chances are that you are on HSDPA, your phone just may not display that fact. What device are you using?[/QUOTE]
Tilt with kaiser tweak to turn H on. What do you mean by blue? I've read info about it being "up to nine times faster", thats why I said that.

[Sean Park]

Blue indicates 3G territory on the coverage map (http://www.wireless.att.com/coverageviewer/) (select on bottom of map). The Tilt (with H enabled) only shows the H when you have an active data session. Absent an active data session it will only show E or 3G. If you only see 3G, click the icon for the connectivity window to open - it should say "There are no data sessions active." Open IE or whatever browser/Outlook, etc. and when it starts a data session it will convert to H.

Unless something is awry with the phone, you are using 3G UMTS HSDPA. As far as the "nine times faster," it is somewhat misleading... Many people refer to HSDPA as 3.5G and EDGE as 3G (when it really falls under 2G sometimes referred to as 2.5G since faster than GPRS). So, forget referring to the associated generation and simply reference the protocol -- the short and sweet is that HSDPA nine times faster than EDGE.