Wired Magazine began a global iPhone 3G study on August 13, 2008. It invited readers who used an iPhone 3G to test and submit data upload and download speeds (the site TestMyiPhone.com was used to measure speed). The test has finished and Wired posted the results from the 2,636 participants. In the US download speeds generally averaged 990 KB – which was shy of European T-Mobile’s fastest average results of 1,822 KB. San Francisco participants reported results indicating 10 of every 30 iPhone 3G has speeds barely surpassing EDGE – leading to speculation that a large portion of issues with iPhone 3G connections is carrier related. Wired concludes:

In our view, this data is a strong indicator that performance of the mobile carrier’s network is affecting the iPhone 3G more than the handset itself. This also furthers our thesis that it’s highly unlikely that Apple is going to wave a magical wand and say, “3G problems, be gone,” with a software update. Before Apple can make such a claim, it needs to wait for all of its carriers to optimize 3G network behavior — in terms of number of towers, how they’re positioned and how much bandwidth each tower can handle.

Wired.com’s iPhone 3G survey reveals network weakness

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