3G iPhone to support 42Mbps Evolved HSPA data?

Get this. Australian site ChannelNews claims that a "senior executive of Telstra" is the latest 3G iPhone bean spiller. They quote the exec as saying the following:

"We know what is coming we have seen the new device and it will be available on our network as soon as it is launched in the USA. By Christmas this phone will be capable of 42Mbps which will make it faster than a lot of broadband offerings and the fastest iPhone on any network in the world."

Interesting. We know that Telstra's Next G HSDPA network has been capable of 14.4Mbps since 2007. At GSMA Mobile World Congress, they even committed to 21Mbps before the end of the year and 42Mbps using HSPA+ (aka, Evolved HSPA, HSPA Evolution) technology in 2009... not Christmas of 2008. Hard to say if this is just industry blow-harding or actual insider info. June 9th: T-minus 17 days and counting.

[Thanks, Paul S.]

Read -- Telstra 42Mbps HSPA+ in 2009
Read -- Telstra 3G iPhone rumor

[derrenharper @ May 23rd 2008 4:52AM]

Oh man, you're wasted working your McJob - you should be on TV with comedy like that.

[Glen @ May 23rd 2008 4:41AM]

I wouldn't put too much stock in what a Telstra sales person says... they're not known for their truthful facts.

[packetsniffer @ May 23rd 2008 9:46AM]

That, and who cares? The phone won't be capable of actually using anywhere near that much bandwidth because there isn't enough processing power. It could use 2mbps at best. And something tells me the tethering options are less than stellar.

[James Peek @ May 23rd 2008 4:42AM]

Pity Telstra doesn't offer anything closely resembling a reasonable data plan. $29 per month for a whole 80MB is their idea of a "Heavy User" data pack, or $89 per month for 1GB... Hardly going to encourage much uptake at that price given that's on top of your standard mobile call plans, especially when you can blow it at 42Mbps!

[That Fender Strat Guy @ May 23rd 2008 7:48AM]

42mbps? Rubbish. 4.2mbps HSDPA, sure. This is what happens when the marketing team tries to get their silly little heads round data transfer rates and other 'tek stuffz'

Even IF their network does support such a transfer rate, the 3G iphone chip would have to support it, and as it's one friggin country out of the world, I think this is pretty much rubbish.

[SV @ May 23rd 2008 8:18AM]

I suggest you read the article and know the facts before jumping to conclusions. Telstra's Next G currently supports 14.4Mbps. A 42Mbps upgrade is in the works and is expected within the next year or two.

Australia is a pioneer in 3G, so don't think that what you don't see in your own country isn't possible elsewhere.

[Joe @ May 23rd 2008 5:13AM]

The flash on the iPhone can't write at 2 Mbps therefore, using the powers of intelligent reasoning, I conclude the 3G iPhone will not be running on a 42 Mbps network.

I would be titillated with a 2 Mbps network.

[John @ May 23rd 2008 5:52AM]

What flash are you talking about? The actual firmware is on one, the RAM is another sort of memory.
The flash where you store music and video surely writes a whole lot faster than 2 Mbps? My old memory stick from 2005 writes at 5MB/s (40 Mbps).

[applefan @ May 23rd 2008 6:22AM]

well all I want is an iPhone that can run on verizon.

[bondsbw @ May 23rd 2008 6:59AM]

@applefan:

I think you just need to switch to a compatible carrier. It's Verizon's own fault... they had first dibs at the iPhone and blew it off.

[Joe @ May 23rd 2008 7:10AM]

I meant 42 not 2. The flash that holds data can't take it at 42 Mbps. That's like filling your water bottle with a fire hose.

Obviously I wasn't talking about the firmware ROM who cares about read speeds for that.

And even the system RAM might not do 42 Mbps.

[John @ May 23rd 2008 7:53AM]

@Joe @ May 23rd 2008 7:10AM
Trust me on this one, the RAM can do a lot more than 42Mbps. It's actually closer to 2Gbps (source: Geekbench).
I strongly believe the flash inside the iPhone can do at least 40Mbps.

[Frankenstein Black @ May 23rd 2008 9:16AM]

@bondsbw
Don't believe the V hype! They never had first dibs because Apple saw the global reach GSM writing on the wall. CDMA, is old, limited and just plain dumb in this day and age. V knows it and LTE 4G can't come fast enough for em. Thats when you will get your Verizon iPhone...

[El Taco @ May 23rd 2008 5:40PM]

@applefan

Amen to that!

[loujob @ May 24th 2008 8:39AM]

no he's right. I clocked the write speed over my wifi on my current iphone through winscp to 450kilobytes a second. Same over USB. It's really slow. Hopefully, the 3G iphone comes with some read/write speed improvements.

[D.M. @ May 23rd 2008 5:05AM]

Telstra actually offer the only unlimited data and SMS plan in Aus.

And its only 30 dollars a month for UNLIMITED (true unlimited).

Instant Messaging
Web browsing
Email
Standard text messaging (SMS)
Standard picture messaging (MMS)
http://www.telstra.com.au/hiptop/gethiptop_pricing.html

So yeah ... how can you say they are not any good? No one else offerse close to this.

Its even better than the AT&T unlimited plans in the US (also dont say "oh ... its not 3G" well neither is the current unlimited iphone plan on offer in the US.


Although isnt 42Mbps not specced yet? So how can the Iphone or telstra say it will work ? (therefore its most likley a fake).

[Matt @ May 23rd 2008 6:03AM]

But you that plan is for hiptops only. What good is that?

[Shawin @ May 23rd 2008 5:20AM]

If that's true, then that's the best reason ever for me to go to Australia.

[C @ May 23rd 2008 5:39AM]

And Wow, only 60 cents a minute for calls plus a very reasonable 27 cents call connection fee.

We get sodomised on phone calls in australia.

[Taylor @ May 23rd 2008 5:43AM]

Only for the HipTop (known as the Sidekick in the USA).
Motorola must be paying them tonnes.

Hopefully Apple will do a deal like this!

[Adam @ May 23rd 2008 8:12AM]

"Nice accent...Austria? Put another shrimp on the barbie, mate!"

[Kizorblade @ May 23rd 2008 5:05AM]

I'd love to see Jobs' face if this was true. He'd be all red and puffy

[Michelle @ May 23rd 2008 5:07AM]

My close friend is a Telstra executive and yes this is true. I emailed Engadget weeks ago with this news, but they obviously didn't take it on. It is absolutely 100% true that the new iPhone will operate on Telstra's Next G network, the fastest in Australia.

[LordFarkward @ May 23rd 2008 5:37AM]

you gotta understand that people e-mail engadget all the time claiming that "my friend at the board of XXX told me that XXX will be buying engadget soon!", so it's understandable why they don't make a post until they can do a reasonable amount of confirmation first

[Sarig @ May 23rd 2008 6:32AM]

I don't know, when it comes to iPhones, they don't seem to need much in the ways of confirmation and rumours generally :)

[Beau @ May 23rd 2008 7:11AM]

Fastest in the world too I believe :-)

[rick @ May 23rd 2008 2:24PM]

It is true! I've already got one, hacked, unlocked it, and now on my way to Mars. Wow this iphone is blazing fast, and the reception is great!

[Khattab @ May 23rd 2008 5:12AM]

T-minus. Deutsche Telekom, I hear you calling.

[Joe @ May 23rd 2008 8:19AM]

The proc, a Samsung S3C640 is only capable of 266Mbps so I'm inclined to think you're not correct about 2 Gbps.

[Alexander @ May 23rd 2008 8:31AM]

douche-telekom

There. Fixed that for you.

[loosely_coupled @ May 23rd 2008 5:48AM]

Well maybe they mean it would someday be firmware upgradeable to HSPA+.

here is what we know:

1) There are ZERO phones on the market that I'm aware of that can even do 7.2mbps or 14.4mbps on regular HSDPA

2) Phones that can support the fast uplink of HSUPA are just now coming out in the next month.

3) The referenced 3G chipset found in the iPhone firmware doesn't even natively support HSUPA, so an included ability to do not just HSUPA but HSPA+ is unlikely.

[Phoenix @ May 23rd 2008 11:06AM]

Yes there are, just not in america

[Phoenix @ May 23rd 2008 11:07AM]

That was in answer to point 1

[dagamer34 @ May 23rd 2008 1:42PM]

You realize that specs can change right?

[SneAKz @ May 23rd 2008 6:10AM]

My iPhone can't even draw 54mbps over 802.11g Wi-Fi. Can 42mbps over cellular HSPA possible? I'm pretty sure the iPhone can't process that much data at once.

[derF @ May 23rd 2008 6:32AM]

Yes, this article is true! What it failed to mention, however, is that with these blazing speeds, the battery talk time is 17 minutes.

[André @ May 23rd 2008 6:47AM]

It is actually much more power-efficient to be able to do something quick (like downloading a large file). 3G is 3G, it doesn't suddenly use more power because it can deliver data in faster speeds.

[Phoenix @ May 23rd 2008 12:39PM]

For normal browsing, with the 3G sitting on all the time, it is much more power hungry

[CJ @ Jun 1st 2008 7:52AM]

Well, if telstra DO release iPhone here, it's the guranteed death of exclusitivity.

Let's hope it does come out on three different providers.

[Marty K. @ May 23rd 2008 7:20AM]

"Dude, I think I just filled the cup."

[Michael Jones @ May 23rd 2008 7:22AM]

Why is it that Microsoft went to Virtualization and Virtual Memory to support larger processing capability when all Microsoft software needed to do was to hibernate selected programming that was running and then theres the memory availability plus have Virtual memory available once again without losing anything or adding to the technicality of Windows operating System? It is ironic Microsoft allowed developers to push Virtualization and not make consideration to do this as it would have not cost Microsoft as much money to do it as it did to payoff developers, now Microsoft has to consider it as a challenge against developers of Virtualization since they need it for Windows Seven immediately. Help me ShockAll Microsoft on this idea. In hibernating selected running programming everything is saved to disk, unselecting a hibernation Sequence would put everything back to where it was before you selected it without disrupting Windows so the portion of programming you wanted to access would have memory available and not be bothered by other running programming. This seems the best avenue to approach controlling software instead of hiding content everywhere which is all Virtualization is doing with encryption making it much more difficult to break the system and to run all types of programming. Any type of programming could have a presetup so that instant hibernation could provide access to selected Windows features in addition to what you wanted to run so clicking a button would make is so instantly.

[Alexander @ May 23rd 2008 8:33AM]

Wait, what?

[tony @ May 23rd 2008 9:46AM]

Maybe because they didn't hire you?

[NightBlade @ May 23rd 2008 7:26AM]

I call BS on this.

[Michael Jones @ May 23rd 2008 7:32AM]

Quote:
D.M. @ May 23rd 2008 5:05AM
Telstra actually offer the only unlimited data and SMS plan in Aus.

You really have not read about SkyPe http://www.skype.com/ have you. SkyPe has mobile phones and is heading towards 3G spirit but its a eBay company and eBay wants to sell it off cause they cannot develop it for use with eBay which is all they actually wanted from a phone service, to bad their option was SkyPe as I read about 'Panasonic VIERA PZ850 Internet-Ready HDTV' with all that it accesses ut theres no eBay access through it programmed into the TV so eBay would have to devise something of the order of a HDTV unit that would access the Internet for free as well as the free HDTV cntent and that goes into adding phone support into the unit so No eBay has much adverse planning, Skype is a failure for them and they expect to take a loss in selling it because its located in Germany making it much more difficult to comply to.

[Michael Jones @ May 23rd 2008 8:02AM]

Quote:
That Fender Strat Guy @ May 23rd 2008 7:48AM
42mbps? Rubbish. 4.2mbps HSDPA, sure.

Yep, theres not even 48MBps software nor operating system so it is pulling its own weight nothing of the order that a 64MBps system couldn't match if Microsoft got a Yahoo Phone system in a deal with Yahoo then Google would have to go away to seek control of a phone so they have to get their own phone instead, they are not accessible with the HDTV's by Panasonic either so Google loses bigger by condending to overthrow Yahoo by controlling the stocks instead of outright purchasing it from Yahoo so their hopes for controlling Yahoo's board would fail and this ends Googles hopes for controlling Yahoo and Microsoft could make Yahoo bigger and better with Windows Seven instead which Google has nothing except a OS v2 browser OS System to match and nothing of the scale of 64MBps but anybody could install it if they had such a GOS.

[SV @ May 23rd 2008 8:35AM]

Eh? Say again, please?

You may want to explore the joys of punctuation. It will increase the readability of long paragraphs by an extraordinary amount.

[Bloobie @ May 24th 2008 10:42PM]

Are you the hybrid from a Cylon basestar?

[The Ron @ May 23rd 2008 8:16AM]

Wait a sec, the so-called 3Mbps phone internet go at like 500Kbps from my experience, so how slow is this 42Mbps internet gonna go?

[Mike @ Jun 13th 2008 5:20PM]

Nope you got it wrong...
theres bits and theres bytes
1 byte = 8 bits
so 8 Kbps = 1 KBps
You probably see the speeds in KBps
so 500 KBps would be like about 4 Mbps