Even GPRS is still supported by most phones and that predates Edge. The GSM system likes to do things together, so roaming isn't a problem. As long as phones are still made to use a data standard, then phone companies will still support them. This is a pretty quick fix and won't take such as much time as the transtion to UMTS, which would be great for rural communities who will be waiting for the 3G wave to hit them for a while. It's great for Europe since they have buy up more spectrum just for UMTS and it's a slow process. Here in the states AT&T is using the spectrum they already have, so it's a bit faster of a rollout, but they are still dependent on the supply of base station equipment to be made by the manufactures.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
zachary miller @ Apr 3rd 2008 2:15PM
Even GPRS is still supported by most phones and that predates Edge. The GSM system likes to do things together, so roaming isn't a problem. As long as phones are still made to use a data standard, then phone companies will still support them. This is a pretty quick fix and won't take such as much time as the transtion to UMTS, which would be great for rural communities who will be waiting for the 3G wave to hit them for a while. It's great for Europe since they have buy up more spectrum just for UMTS and it's a slow process. Here in the states AT&T is using the spectrum they already have, so it's a bit faster of a rollout, but they are still dependent on the supply of base station equipment to be made by the manufactures.