Living On The EDGE

When I’m on the road, it’s sweet to have Internet access almost anytime I need it. With my cell phone, I’ve been using General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) over Bluetooth, which is equivalent to a speed of approximately 56K. It’s great when there’s absolutely no hotspot and nothing to connect to, but the slow speed definitely takes me back to the ghetto days of dial-up Internet access. Cingular and T-Mobile both recently introduced their EDGE technology for mobile access that I’ll have to try. Faster is always better!

EDGE stands for Enhanced Data for Global Evolution and is a global standard for wide-area data communication. It is a technology that delivers broadband-like data speeds to mobile devices, and is spreading rapidly across the globe. It is three times faster than the current GPRS technology I’m using now with my phone. It reaches burst speeds of up to 200 kilobits per second (Kbps) with an average download speed of 70-135 Kbps. That basically means that you can load a webpage (especially the ones with lots of pictures) much faster, or send bigger e-mail attachments without having to take a nap while you’re waiting. In comparison, high speed with Oceanic’s Road Runner has a download speed of 5,000 kbps and an upload speed of 384 kbps. Quite a difference, but the EDGE still much, much faster than plain old GPRS.

You can use EDGE with a various devices: enhanced data phones, Windows mobile smartphones, integrated PDAs or PC card modems. I personally will probably try the black RAZR V3 (with Bluetooth for the wireless freedom) for this purpose. I have the silver RAZR, but I’m so sad that it doesn’t support EDGE!

Cingular offers its EDGE service in over 13,000 U.S. cities and towns and over 39,000 miles on highways. Through its GPRS roaming partners, Cingular’s network coverage includes an area of nearly 268 million users. Basically if you can a signal, it will work. International EDGE and GPRS roaming is also available in more than 80 countries. If you already have a data plan with Cingular and an EDGE capable phone, it should already work for you.

As of September, T-Mobile’s EDGE services are available across 90 percent of its GPRS-enabled network. If you have an EDGE-enabled device you can already use it with your T-Mobile data plan. If you don’t have a phone or device yet, they are not yet selling the EDGE-enabled phones, so you’ll have to wait a little while or find something on e-Bay.

EDGE is definitely not for everyone, but is excellent for mobile people like me who are traveling all the time or out on the road. Check out www.cingular.com or www.tmobile.com for more information.