RIM considers E-EDGE for BlackBerry
by The PocketBerry Team
Believe it or not, our knowledge is very limited when it comes to network capabilities of carriers. We have distractions all around talking about 3G and 4G networks coming to carriers and mobile platforms. What we don’t hear much of anything about is the E-EDGE network.
The E-EDGE network is an “evolved” EDGE network that promises faster data transfer and overall performance over the standard EDGE network. We’ve seen GPRS, EDGE, 3G get implemented in BlackBerry but never heard anything about this new E-EDGE. Pretty much carriers will have the power to enable this technology, but device makers are still shaky about making the devices until they actually see carriers take a stand on the matter. RIM strongly believes that E-EDGE’s speed and efficiency will call for a good user experience that won’t saturate network capacity. Many of you 3G users aren’t really impressed just yet. Sure we don’t have a comparison chart yet as to what E-EDGE will bring that 3G does not but keep in mind that 3G is not available everywhere around the world and E-EDGE will ensure that every former EDGE user could be on this new network.
So what’s next? RIM is ready to play ball with the new and improved EDGE network that we know as E-EDGE. Making platforms and devices for it are still on hold until carriers confirm that they are affirmative on making the upgrade. Sure there are older GPRS devices, but most of the latest EDGE network devices will just require software updates to get on the E-EDGE network. The idea doesn’t seem too far-fetched as RIM has its eyes and ears open for it.
-by Collin Sorp
Source: Network World
