Sprint Mocks AT&T, Offers “iPhone 4G” via WiMax Overdrive
Sprint now joins Verizon in taking jabs at AT&T’s network and the iPhone, offering an “iPhone 4G” in their latest TV spot via their Overdrive WiMax hotspot (think 4G MiFi).
Sprint claims the best solution to AT&T’s supposedly slow 3G speed is not the next generation of iPhone (which won’t be called the iPhone 4G due to LTE networks not being deployed for a year or two yet), but rather your current iPhone connected via WiFi to their beefed up 4G WiMax network.
So, with Verizon targeting the iPad via MiFi and now Sprint going after the iPhone via WiMax (when they could be focusing on their own devices like the Droid and the Palm Pre) are they hoping to prop up the modem business by surrendering device mindshare to Apple?
Thing is, last we checked AT&T has the fastest 3G data speeds available on any US carrier and that’s good enough for us. But for those unfortunate souls out there with less than desirable AT&T service is this something that you would ever be interested in? And if you’re already tethering your iPhone to a Sprint Overdrive, what kind of speeds are you getting?
Watch the ad after the break!
[Via BGR]
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Rene Ritchie, Editor
Chad Garrett, Writer
Jeremy Sikora, Writer
Leanna Lofte, Writer
Georgia, Writer
Allyson Kazmucha, Writer
Dieter Bohn, Editor in Chief, SPE
Sprint got the best 3 G network .. not as large as Verizon ..but it’s reliable.. and fast… AT&T has the worst.. I think that’s pretty much common knowledge..
Besides that .. why wouldn’t Sprint target the Ipod Touch instead of the Iphone
Lol 1 bar of AT&T 3G service.
The truth about wireless carriers is that they all suck. What they don’t want you to know is that once we have 4g broadband saturated with speeds reaching 100 mb or more you will never complain of dropped calls. Phones service will be delivered by using voip technology. You can carry decent conversation using 3G. 4G will only drive more to voip. Skype will be allowed to operate on Verizons smartphones soon. I understand there are applications for the Iphone that also could deliver phone service using that application. It is just a matter of time when all we need is one service wireless broadband at the lowest price. Voip providers are expanding rapidly and finding an inexpensive provider will be easy. The days of proprietary phones and service will be ending. More power to the consumer.
We tested the iPhone 3GS with the 4G Sprint Overdrive. We’re getting 45kbps download and 330kbps upload. That’s much slower than AT&T’s 3G connection from which we get 2377kbps download and 351kbps upload.
On the other hand, when the MacBook Pro uses the overdrive, we get 4580kbps download and 940kbps upload.
There appears to be some kind of incompatibility or conflict in optimization algorithms between the iPhone and Overdrive. We tried tweaking the RTS and Fragmentation threshold but could not get any better download numbers on the iPhone 3GS using the OverDrive.
The iPhone 3GS clocks 8550kbps download and 7735kbps upload when using our WiFi connection to Comcast cable internet, so we know it’s capable of much higher download and upload speeds when used in WiFi mode.
In about a week, we plan to test the iPad WiFi to see if it fairs better.
We ran the latest firmware updated on the Sprint Overdrive. We now are getting 1500kbps downloads on the iPhone 3GS and 3000+kbps on the iPad WiFi.