I can't quite remember when I last depended on 2.5G EDGE to connect my notebook to the Internet, must have been a couple of years ago, perhaps back in 2008, as 3G has become pretty ubiquitous at the places I went. But recently in Thailand, where 3G has not yet quite arrived and the hotel Wi-Fi agonizingly slow at times, it was much better than the alternative. Fortunately, the 2G network at the place worked really well and with throughput speeds of around 250-300 kbit/s, I was actually quite surprised that I could actually get my work done with little pain. Not as fast as with a 3G connection by far, but the delay times before pages started to be displayed and emails downloaded were still bearable. So what's the message here? Perhaps it's "don't write it off just yet, 2.5G still has some uses now and then beyond small screen web browsing".
2 thoughts on “On the EDGE again”
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I keep the latest version of Opera’s desktop browser installed on my netbook because it offers the same server side compression technology that’s on Opera Mini, an application I know you love and use often.
Where EDGE fails is loading information from multiple sources. Say you’re reading RSS feeds and images are coming down from 20 different sites. That makes it useless.
Anyway, I’d rather have some connection than no connection. When things are really slow I’ll use mobile versions of desktop sites on my desktop.
While awaiting my new ADSL connection at home, my operator gave me a 3G/HSPA dongle to tide me over. Unfortunately where I live I only get EDGE. Fortunately it regularly reported a 30kB/s download rate; not so bad. The real annoyance though was waiting eight weeks for the ADSL – which is bad even by Belgian standards.