Is the Cingular GPRS network supposed to be slow and undependable? Or is it my phone?

At the Cingular store the display placard says the HTC Cingular 8125
is supposed to use the Edge network so it should move data at
broadband speeds but I can only get GPRS. Also, I had dial-up for many
years and now I have 3MB DSL (at home), and the GPRS is usually as
slow as 56K dialup, not even cllose to broadband. Sometimes I can't
get on the right site at all because it's so slow. I sometimes get a
message the site isn't available. Often when I get this message I'm at
home and I find it is available on my DSL network. What causes this
problem? I mean ... the 8125 makes phone calls okay, so why the
Internet problems? Are the GPRS towers further apart than regular cell
phone towers?

Oh, and where I use the GPRS to keep track of where I am going with
GPS and Windows Live Search often the GPS arrow is all I see on my
screen because the aerial data isn't coming in fast enough, especially
if cruising at Interstate speeds. At city street speeds it is usually
okay.

Is this phone just an anachronism (outdated before its time)?

Thanks.

Jan

Jan <c3derp0nd@gmail.com> wrote:
> At the Cingular store the display placard says the HTC Cingular 8125
> is supposed to use the Edge network so it should move data at
> broadband speeds but I can only get GPRS.


EDGE is not available in all locations that GPRS is.
How are you deciding that you are only getting GPRS?
The owners' guide shows only a "G" icon for GPRS or EDGE.

> Also, I had dial-up for many years and now I have 3MB DSL (at home), and
> the GPRS is usually as slow as 56K dialup, not even cllose to broadband.

GPRS will be somewhere around 30-40kbps. EDGE could be 100-150kbps.
Neither of those is close to DSL speeds, nor expected to be.
Cingular Broadband Connect is HSDPA, not EDGE.

http://www.cingular.com/midtolarge/network


--
---
Clarence A Dold - Hidden Valley Lake, CA, USA GPS: 38.8,-122.5

On Feb 23, 2:49 am, "Jan" <c3derp...@gmail.com> wrote:
> At the Cingular store the display placard says the HTC Cingular 8125
> is supposed to use the Edge network so it should move data at
> broadband speeds but I can only get GPRS. Also, I had dial-up for many
> years and now I have 3MB DSL (at home), and the GPRS is usually as
> slow as 56K dialup, not even cllose to broadband. Sometimes I can't
> get on the right site at all because it's so slow. I sometimes get a
> message the site isn't available. Often when I get this message I'm at
> home and I find it is available on my DSL network. What causes this
> problem? I mean ... the 8125 makes phone calls okay, so why the
> Internet problems? Are the GPRS towers further apart than regular cell
> phone towers?
>
> Oh, and where I use the GPRS to keep track of where I am going with
> GPS and Windows Live Search often the GPS arrow is all I see on my
> screen because the aerial data isn't coming in fast enough, especially
> if cruising at Interstate speeds. At city street speeds it is usually
> okay.
>
> Is this phone just an anachronism (outdated before its time)?
>
> Thanks.
>
> Jan

Jan, he is right. Edge is nothing near the speed of Broadband. Maybe
150k at best. The 8125 always shows the G when accessing the internet,
it will not display any icons indicating Edge. You can check
cingular.com for the coverage of Edge, and yes, the phone is outdated!
Trash it and get a 3G/HSDPA (8525 or BlackJack etc.).

Good luck
3GFreak
www.mobilevertigo.com

On Feb 24, 7:43 pm, "3Gfreak" <tastybre...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Feb 23, 2:49 am, "Jan" <c3derp...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
> > At the Cingular store the display placard says the HTC Cingular 8125
> > is supposed to use the Edge network so it should move data at
> > broadband speeds but I can only get GPRS. Also, I had dial-up for many
> > years and now I have 3MB DSL (at home), and the GPRS is usually as
> > slow as 56K dialup, not even cllose to broadband. Sometimes I can't
> > get on the right site at all because it's so slow. I sometimes get a
> > message the site isn't available. Often when I get this message I'm at
> > home and I find it is available on my DSL network. What causes this
> > problem? I mean ... the 8125 makes phone calls okay, so why the
> > Internet problems? Are the GPRS towers further apart than regular cell
> > phone towers?
>
> > Oh, and where I use the GPRS to keep track of where I am going with
> > GPS and Windows Live Search often the GPS arrow is all I see on my
> > screen because the aerial data isn't coming in fast enough, especially
> > if cruising at Interstate speeds. At city street speeds it is usually
> > okay.
>
> > Is this phone just an anachronism (outdated before its time)?
>
> > Thanks.
>
> > Jan
>
> Jan, he is right. Edge is nothing near the speed of Broadband. Maybe
> 150k at best. The 8125 always shows the G when accessing the internet,
> it will not display any icons indicating Edge. You can check
> cingular.com for the coverage of Edge, and yes, the phone is outdated!
> Trash it and get a 3G/HSDPA (8525 or BlackJack etc.).
>
> Good luck
> 3GFreakwww.mobilevertigo.com- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

Thanks 3G. So much for the two year contract rebate, huh? Well I
guess if I can pay $40 per month for cell phone web access I can cough
up a little more for a phone that's less time consuming to use. Is the
Blackjack keyboard as easy to use as the 8125's?

Jan

On 24 Feb 2007 16:43:33 -0800, "3Gfreak" <tastybreeze@gmail.com> wrote
in <1172364213.335441.216580@k78g2000cwa.googlegroups .com>:

>On Feb 23, 2:49 am, "Jan" <c3derp...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> At the Cingular store the display placard says the HTC Cingular 8125
>> is supposed to use the Edge network so it should move data at
>> broadband speeds but I can only get GPRS. Also, I had dial-up for many
>> years and now I have 3MB DSL (at home), and the GPRS is usually as
>> slow as 56K dialup, not even cllose to broadband. Sometimes I can't
>> get on the right site at all because it's so slow. I sometimes get a
>> message the site isn't available. Often when I get this message I'm at
>> home and I find it is available on my DSL network. What causes this
>> problem? I mean ... the 8125 makes phone calls okay, so why the
>> Internet problems? Are the GPRS towers further apart than regular cell
>> phone towers?
>>
>> Oh, and where I use the GPRS to keep track of where I am going with
>> GPS and Windows Live Search often the GPS arrow is all I see on my
>> screen because the aerial data isn't coming in fast enough, especially
>> if cruising at Interstate speeds. At city street speeds it is usually
>> okay.
>>
>> Is this phone just an anachronism (outdated before its time)?

>Jan, he is right. Edge is nothing near the speed of Broadband. Maybe
>150k at best. ...

Given a decent signal and a Class 10 or 12 device, Cingular EGPRS(EDGE)
is actually capable of downlink speeds in excess of 200 Kbps -- see
tests I reported here last month. When speed is much less than that,
the usual problem is the device in my experience, not the network.

--
Best regards, FAQ FOR CINGULAR WIRELESS:
John Navas <http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Cingular_Wireless_FAQ>