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iPhone 3GS Upload Speeds Limited To Paltry 384Kbps

Real-world speed tests and component tear-downs reveal that the iPhone 3GS can upload data at a pokey 384Kbps. That stinks. What gives, Apple?

One of the first apps I installed on the iPhone 3GS was Speed Test. I run it nearly every day. I am especially certain to check it when I am visiting a new area, just to see what sort of speeds are really available out there. In all my tests, I've achieved a highest download speed of 1.283Mbps. That's about in-line with what AT&T's HSDPA-based 3G network can offer in the real world.

Upload speeds? The best I've achieved -- according to Speed Test -- is 276Kbps. An unofficial poll I conducted via Twitter returned the highest upload speed of 355Kbps from a user in Ohio. That's not so great, especially for a device that has the tag line "the S stands for speed".

A new report from Macworld includes a component breakdown of the iPhone 3GS. It reveals that the iPhone 3GS uses a UMTS/HSDPA cellular radio chip. HSDPA stands for high-speed downlink packet access. The iPhone can download stuff at a theoretical limit of 7.2Mbps (once AT&T gets those enhanced network speeds up and running). Right now, AT&T's network is limited to 3.6Mbps, and real-world download speeds of about 1.2 - 1.4Mbps are about right.

UMTS -- which the iPhone is using for uploads -- is limited to upload speeds of just 384Kbps. This is the bare minimum for a device to be considered "3G". Why doesn't the iPhone 3GS have at least HSUPA (high-speed uplink packet access) capabilities built in? For a device that markets itself on speed, limiting the uploads to just 384Kbps is extremely odd.

Considering the iPhone 3GS's new abilities to send multimedia messages (pictures, audio and video) and upload video directly to YouTube, this makes the upload limitations even more puzzling.

Apple has not officially commented on the matter.

Thoughts?

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