First rumored a couple of weeks ago, it turns out that AT&T has indeed enhanced its EDGE network for faster speeds. Yesterday, on iPhone eve, users of AT&T's EDGE network began reporting significant improvements in speeds, up to 200 kilobits per second.This is definitely welcome news. AT&T has increased the capacity of its base stations to make sure its network is operating at optimum speeds for the EDGE standard. Field tests from people are showing speeds of 200 kilobits per second, which is 25 Kilobytes per second. One tester saw rates as high as 275 kilobits per second.

While that ain't exactly broadband speeds, it is a vast improvement over the average 40 kilobits / 5 Kilobytes per second that people were seeing with the EDGE network before yesterday.

This morning, I broke out my BlackBerry Pearl and gave its EDGE data connection a whirl. True enough, browsing was much improved. Loading non-mobile-friendly sites, such as eBay, was drastically faster than before. Simple WAP sites loaded almost immediately.

Just to be thorough, I pulled the SIM out of my Pearl and stuck it into a Nokia E62 I have laying around, and browsing speeds on that device, which also uses the EDGE network, were equally improved.

I also went to DSL Reports and performed an actual speed test. I downloaded a 200 kb file three times, and my speed scores were 149 kbps, 176 kbps, and 250 kbps.

Beyond making the Internet more bearable for iPhone users, this network enhancement benefits everyone who uses AT&T's EDGE network. Thanks, guys.

Of course, it would have been nice if AT&T's EDGE network had performed this well from the start.