It will be available on November 22nd, free with rebate after signing up for a contract. That means you customers in Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, LA and Miami. [AT&T via Engadget]

AT&T and others are kicking 3G to the curb after it hits the 7.2Mbps barrier, and moving over to zany 4G technologies. T-Mobile, though, says they're sticking with 3G HSPA for the foreseeable future, and that the network will carry near-4G speeds in 2010.

This is good news for T-Mo subscribers in the short term, and I can see why the company would want to incrementally push past all their competitors while they all toil with next-gen hardware and infrastructure. But what happens when everyone else is finished rolling out their LTE networks? Where does that leave T-Mobile, besides three years behind? [MocoNews via Electronista]

Most GSM-based cellphones suffer the same problem: No matter how fast they are at download, they will upload at only 384Kbps, or less, as you can see in our iPhone 3GS network test. This is because the hardware doesn't support the HSUPA (High-Speed Uplink Packet Access) standard, created by Nokia—the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) refers to this standard as Enhanced Uplink.

Some would say that this is not needed because Enhanced Uplink—which runs at 1.4 and 1.9Mbps—is not supported by AT&T yet, but in Europe there are networks that already support this standard. I would imagine that users of the popular JesusPhone would love to upload their photos and videos to Facebook and YouTube as fast as possible.

On the other side, with AT&T still struggling to get 7.2Mbps off the ground and most of the other networks having problems and slowdowns everywhere, I would be happy if they all just managed to actually deliver their advertised download speeds. [PC World]

First, a direct translation: AT&T's upgraded (or more accurately, upgrading) 3G network claims data download rates of 7.2 megabits per second. Though that's the lingo used to describe bandwidth, it's important to remember that those are not megabytes. AT&T's impressive-sounding 7.2 megabits would yield somewhere closer to .9 megabytes (900 kilobytes) per second, and that's only if you're getting peak performance, which you never will because...

That 7.2Mbps is theoretical, and due to technical overhead, network business, device speed and overzealous marketing, real world speeds are significantly lower. UPDATEDEven looking at the old hardware on the current 3G network—the networking guts in your iPhone 3G is technically capable of reaching the 3.6Mbps downstream that AT&T's network is technically capable of pushing. There are lots of reasons you don't ever see that. For one, it's limited to 1.4Mbps to preserve battery life—the faster you download, the faster you burn that battery. Another is congestion—all the a-holes watching YouTubes around you—and backhaul—the amount of pipe running to a tower, or more English-y still, the total bandwidth the tower has available. Another is proximity—the closer to the tower you are, the faster your phone is gonna fly. So for top speeds, you should sit under a deserted tower with plenty of backhaul.

As you can see on our chart above, our tested speeds for everything from EV-DO Rev. A to WiMax ran at anywhere from one half to one sixth their potential speed. Accordingly, Jason found AT&T's network to run at about 1.6Mbps with the iPhone 3G S—about a third faster than with the 3G, though he was probably still connecting at 3.6Mbps rates—the 7.2 rollout won't be complete until 2011, according to AT&T.

AT&T-style HSDPA is expected to reach out to an eventual theoretical speed of 14Mbps, which will undoubtedly make the current 3G networks feel slow, but won't necessarily blow them out of the water. That's the thing: the iPhone, and indeed just about all high-end handsets on the market today, operate at speeds that are reasonably close to the limits of 3G technology. In a funny sort of way, the iPhone 3GS is already a bit out of date.

So what's next? And what the hell are those really long green bars up there? Those are the so-called 4G (fourth generation) wireless technologies. Americans can ignore HSPA+ and EV-DO Rev B. for the most part, and given that they're the slowest of the next-gen bunch, shouldn't feel too bad. And anyway, as Matt explained, WiMax and LTE are what's next for us.

Both Verizon and AT&T are within a couple of years of deploying LTE in their networks, and WiMax is already out there in some cities. Our own WiMax tests on Clearwire's network peaked at an astounding 12Mbps—nearly eight times faster than the iPhone 3GS on AT&T. And even if WiMax is shaping up to be more of a general broadband protocol than a cellular one, this is the kind of thing that'll be in your phones in a few years, and the promises are mind-boggling: earlier this year, Verizon's LTE were breaking 60Mbps.

So in short, your brand-new, "S"-for-speed iPhone is pretty speedy—as long as you only look to the past.

Since there was no elusive SIM card slot found like there was on the HP Mini 1000, the modder had to solder in her own. So the hack is not for the faint of heart, but it's confirmed working. Check out the how-to and some photos of the action. [tnkgrl]

Bryant Park (Sunday, 7:25pm)
Was in Bryant park on a nice warm Sunday night. Drank a coffee, tested 3G sticks. It's in midtown, but midtown on Sunday evening is likely about as empty as these networks get in the city, so all three cards performed well here.

Upper West Side (Sunday, 9pm)
My girlfriend's 4th floor apartment in an old (read: not built for radio reception) apartment. In her living room, which is pretty much in the core of the building. So a bad reception area. AT&T took the biggest hit here, but surprisingly, this was Sprint's best performance out of the four locations.

Rockaway Beach (Friday, 3:30pm)
Sitting on a rock jetty extending into the Atlantic off of Rock-Rock...Rockaway beach, dodging salt water spray. JFK is nearby so it's not in the absolute boonies, and all three networks were pretty close, with VZW being the worst and AT&T the best.

Brooklyn (Sunday, 5:30pm)
My house in Clinton Hill/Ft. Greene. Second floor, lots of windows-never had a problem with reception. I must be right next to a Sprint tower because Sprint obliterated the other two. My neighborhood is pretty old-school, so it doesn't surprise me that AT&T and VZW aren't totally built out here yet.

Results
Sprint was way ahead of the other two, who seemed to be in a dead heat most of the time. In downloads, Verizon beat AT&T, but in uploads, AT&T beat Verizon.

Back to main Coast-to-Coast 3G Data Test story

The Test
3G is more important now than ever before. Obviously, AT&T made a big push over the summer to augment 3G for the arrival of the updated iPhone, but almost every smartphone and most standard phones in the three largest cell networks runs on a supposedly fast 3G network, and T-Mobile's 3G network is in the works. The technology can, at least on paper, rival home broadband. AT&T's HSPA network, for instance, is supposed to deliver data at up to 3.6Mbps downstream, while letting you upload at 1.4Mbps. Meanwhile, the EVDO Rev. A that Sprint and Verizon use promises a comparable "burst rate" of 3Mbps up, with 1.5Mbps down.

Like a lot of business travelers, we bloggy types have a particular interest in 3G USB dongles, since we're often trying to file stories far away from any decent wi-fi. Figuring out who has the best service quickly becomes a fixation, which becomes an obsession, which, as usual, becomes an ultimate Battlemodo.

In lieu of jetsetting all around the country, we FedExed our testing package from one staffer's home to the next, until we'd hit eight of the country's biggest cities. In each city, testers were instructed to put the three cards—one each from AT&T Sprint and Verizon—through some pretty rigorous paces. (Note: In case you're wondering why T-Mobile isn't represented, the carrier doesn't yet have the coverage required, nor does it yet offer 3G USB dongles or cards like the ones we used in testing. Next year, maybe.)

The testers chose three to five locations (preferably including one suburban spot). Parking themselves somewhere, they would connect each card to the laptop, running Speakeasy's bandwidth test five times for each device, and then follow it up with an auxiliary battery of repeated pageload and file download tests, in order to verify Speakeasy's readings.

The Gear
The USB dongles we used for testing were typical 3G cards from the carriers: AT&T's Sierra USBConnect 881, Sprint's Sierra Wireless Compass 597 and Verizon Wireless's Novatel USB727. We used both a Lenovo and a MacBook Pro, but at any given time the cards were being tested on one or the other, in order to keep hardware from being a comparative issue. (After all this extensive testing, we don't think results have much to do with your platform or laptop of choice—even the USB dongles' antennae didn't have as much relevance as sheer position to cell tower.)

While it may sound like hopping around town testing cards is easy, rest assured it was plenty challenging. Any test where any of the three cards wasn't playing well with a laptop, and the whole test had to be scrapped. This may not be a clean-room lab study, but we kept firm to our methods and the results speak to that. There's a reason this may be the most information anyone has gathered, independently, on the subject.

Download Performance
As far as download performance goes, Sprint won overall, beating AT&T five cities to three, and handily beating Verizon in four cities while losing close contests in four more. To round it out, Verizon beat AT&T in four cities, tied in one, and lost in three.
These results aren't so random when you plot them on the map. Besides proving that Sprint is a serious contender in almost any location—and should be taken seriously as a 3G and 4G data service provider, no matter what your feelings are about its basic phone service—we have confirmed what we thought, that the regional Bell heavies (and the former GTE) hold their own where their real estate holdings are most vast.

AT&T had troubles in the Northeast and Chicago, but down the coast in Raleigh and over in Austin, it's probably no surprise that the southern Bell conglomerate came out victorious. On the West Coast, it was a toss-up except in Portland, where Verizon couldn't quite keep it together.

Upload Performance
What are more surprising are the upload performance results: AT&T totally kicked ass here, winning six cities and barely losing to Sprint in the other two. Verizon was the slowpoke here, though it did nudge Sprint out of the way twice, and beat it soundly once.
Although the same regional attributes crop up here—AT&T is at its weakest in Boston and Chicago—AT&T clearly has a technological edge with HSUPA. Well, it's either that or all of the 3G build-out meant to lure iPhone 3G customers has left the carrier with an awful lot of unused upstream bandwidth, since smartphone users download a lot more than they upload. (This is assuming that upstream and downstream operate independently, as they seemed to in AT&T's case.)

Even when the download performance was crappy, AT&T's upload talents shined through, indicating that the congestion argument could hold merit. So, for the time being anyway, if you're into sending big files, or running some kind of masochistic mobile torrent service, AT&T is the right choice.

The Cities
Want to check out your city or region? Have a look at the eight contestants in this round, and while you're at it, you'll get to know a little more about the Giz staffers who took time to test the gear. If we didn't get to your town this time around, don't fret—maybe we'll get to it next year...or when we eventually test LTE vs. WiMax.

• Austin
• Boston
• Chicago
• New York City
• Portland
• Raleigh-Durham
• San Francisco and the Bay Area
• Seattle

Thanks to Mark, Sean, Andi, Eric and Jack for testing. Special shout-out to Mahoney for helping put together the testing regimen and instructions, and to my brilliant wife for working her Excel bar-graphing magic on our unwieldy spreadsheets .

Googleplex (Wednesday, 1pm)
Having been born and raised in Silicon Valley, I like to brag that Google's Headquarters is just 10 minutes away from my house. Even though the Googleplex itself isn't all that interesting, it's incredibly ginormous, and you get free Naked Juice and candy at the Visitor's Center! Plus, it's Google!

Golden Gate Bridge (Thursday, 3:30pm)
The Golden Gate Bridge is what connects San Francisco to the North Bay—without it, the city would be a secluded island, susceptible to Cloverfield-like attacks. Oh, wait, we're NOT on an island?! My bad...

Oracle Arena (Friday, 12:30am)
Across the street from where the Oakland A's play ball lies the home of the Golden State Warriors. Oakland is in the East Bay, an area I like to avoid because of my allergy to bullets; but my boyfriend took me here anyway for a concert where we rocked out to The Killers (and where I got my mack on with Andrew McMahon from Jack's Mannequin)!

Marin Civic Center (Friday, 10:30am)
In 1997, The Civic Center served as a prominent location in the movie Gattaca. Ten years later, the Peking Acrobats dazzled the hell out of me at a show here, which made me believe I could be a Chinese acrobat too! That didn't work out so well, so I now stick to attending Ryan Adams's concerts at the Civic Center instead.

Golden Gate Park (Friday, 1pm)
My lover lives across the street from Golden Gate Park, where the homeless people show me their wieners, hippies have drum circles on sunny Saturdays, and sketchy men sell me beers from their rolling suitcases. Despite the crazies, it is a nice place to take a stroll on a lazy Sunday to the Botanical Gardens, deYoung Museum, and the Academy of Sciences.

Results
Though AT&T only beat the others twice, it handily won the upload contest. Peaks for all three carriers were really great, but there seems to be some volatility in more congested areas. Blam thinks AT&T's Bay Area coverage map looks like leopard spots, and our tests justify his gripes (though the same could be said for Verizon).

Back to main Coast-to-Coast 3G Data Test story

PGE Park (Saturday, 12 noon)
Home of the Triple-A Beavers, among other minor league sports teams, it's a centrally located venue for fun stuff in Portland. Surprisingly, there was a Starbucks conveniently located right nearby.

Portland State University (Saturday, 1pm)
Surprisingly, the park bench near the university where I tested was not very far from PGE Park, just a few miles, but the reception was quite different, proving that you need diversity of locations to do a proper 3G test.

Vancouver, WA (Saturday, 10am)
Up across the Columbia River from Portland, the "other" Vancouver is a low-key city whose residents score a sweet double-whammy: No income tax (in WA) and no sales tax (if they shop down in OR).

Results
Sprint had a strong showing, with some blistering download speeds at Portland State University. Reception wasn't hot for anyone at PGE, though in Vancouver, Sprint again was the winner. AT&T, as expected, managed high upload speeds in Portland, though the fire wasn't there in Vancouver.

Back to main Coast-to-Coast 3G Data Test story

My Apartment in Austin (6:30pm)
My apartment is on the northwest side of Austin, in a quiet neighborhood between the denser central part of the city and the outer suburban areas.

Suburbia - Round Rock, TX (4:30pm)
Round Rock may be home to Dell, but it's largely a sleepy suburb. I parked in front of someone's house and they actually came home from work while I was testing, giving me an odd look like they thought I was casing their house.

South Austin Coffee Shop (2pm)
Dominican Joe's is a bit of a drive from my apartment, but worth it to get what I consider the best hot chocolate I have ever tasted. Their coffee is not bad either.

Stevie Ray Vaughan Memorial Statue, Austin (3:30pm)
The Stevie Ray Vaughan Memorial is in a beautiful park on the bank of Lady Bird Lake (formerly known as Town Lake). It is just east of Zilker Park, where Austin City Limits is held every year.

Downtown Austin - Congress Ave. (4:30pm)
Downtown Austin is rapidly expanding upwards—three new high rises went up in the past year or so. This location is very central, near the intersection of 6th St. and Congress Ave.

Results
Upstream and down, AT&T was strong with a few exceptions. Verizon was a decent contender, while Sprint was unpredictable. When it comes to downloads, the downtown density (either buildings or cell users) has a severe impact on bandwidth.

Back to main Coast-to-Coast 3G Data Test story

Living near the capital of North Carolina made my location choices clear. Technology plays an important role in the lives of college students, and some of the biggest colleges in the country are located right in my backyard. Plus, it made sense geographically given that the colleges are located in major cities.

The big three colleges are as follows: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Chapel Hill), North Carolina State University (Raleigh) and Duke University (Durham). Wake Technical is the biggest community college in the area, and it's country Raleigh location made for an interesting comparison.

Research Triangle Park (RTP), my fifth location, is one of the oldest and largest science parks in the US. It's also home to over 170 companies like IBM, Cisco, Lenovo, Red Hat and Verizon. Because the area is so wired, it was a must-have on the list.

Results
AT&T was the clear winner here, with just one minor hiccup in an otherwise perfect game. Verizon had a few moments of glory, but not enough for a trend, and Sprint, well, Sprint didn't pull off much here.

Back to main Coast-to-Coast 3G Data Test story

For Gizmodo's tour of Chicago, I tested the Southside, Northside and sort of Middleside of the city. So I started in the lot of Comiskey Park (Go Sox), checked out reception a two blocks east of Michigan Ave by the Water Tower and then finished things off at a Starbucks in Wrigleyville (Clark & Belmont). It's sort of like our own Crosstown Classic, minus the urinal trough with some shopping sprinkled in.

Results
On downloads, Verizon won two contests, while Sprint won one. AT&T never managed to grab a brass ring. Even in uploads, where AT&T is strong, it only managed to win one round. Verizon isn't the clear winner, though, since the downtown location (Streeterville) caused reception difficulties.

Back to main Coast-to-Coast 3G Data Test story

Gov't Center (5pm)
Government Center is a hub of public affairs, adulterous affairs and current affairs. It's also the home to one of the ugliest public buildings in the world (our City Hall). With thousands of wired, connected and gadget-toting workers converging on it every week day, it's a great place to test 3G wireless speeds too.

South Boston (8pm)
If there's one thing I think about when I visit South Boston, it's whether or not my wireless connection is going to work. Oh wait, no no no. That's not it at all. Where's the frickin' beer? Was that Matt Damon? Anyway, wireless networks and their reliability are a close second though, after the beer. And the bars. And the women of South Boston deserve a mention too, now that the place has become a hive of recent college grads. Did I say the network was second? Who knew 3G tests could be so conflicting?

Harvard Square (4pm)
Sweet, glorious Harvard. The smells, the sites, the history. It's also a clusterfuck of students, protesters and people trying to look educated and important without really accomplishing either. And it only took three minutes for a passing homeless man to sit down next to me during the tests and start talking about how Barack Obama was a babykilling devil. Bastion of liberalism my ass!

Waltham (12pm)
There's no place like home, and there's nothing quite like 3G tests on the front porch with a slick looking Lenovo laptop. But put them together and, well, it was just peachy keen, but I'm no longer allowed to be unsupervised on my porch anymore. Note to self: Pants are your friend.

Results
Sprint clearly played to win, here, with Verizon holding on and AT&T throwing in the towel. Even in uploads, where AT&T is generally the strongest competitor, it was a pretty matched fight.

Back to main Coast-to-Coast 3G Data Test story

Maple Leaf (Wednesday, 4pm)
Dining room table at our lovely rental house in this mostly residential upper Seattle neighborhood.

Redmond (Thursday, 4pm)
Hitting the Tully's at Redmond's artificial little town square was daunting for two reasons: one, I was toting not one but two MacBook Pros while surrounded by Microsoft employees, and two, something was blocking most cell towers, so I got poor reception across the board.

Seattle Center (Thursday, 2:30pm)
Sitting under the Space Needle on a chilly day, I got a few funny looks from people, but thankfully no one trying to make friendly conversation.

South Seattle (1pm)
I decided to hit the polar opposite of my neighborhood, so I stopped by Columbia City, a cute little area with restaurants and shops. Somehow, I ended up choosing Starbucks. Don't judge me.

Results
All three carriers held their own except in Redmond, where there was a lack of reception across the board—though somehow AT&T managed stellar uploads anyway. On the flipside, AT&T disappointed at the Space Needle where Verizon did okay and Sprint did great.

Back to main Coast-to-Coast 3G Data Test story

The new U120, out now overseas with HSDPA and WiMAX options, will be available for an undisclosed price next month. Simultaneously, the U110 and U115 will see a refresh with the latest Atom Z530 (still 1.6GHz) processor and a standard hard drive that can be turned off, allowing the system to run at lower power with a smaller SSD.

There will also be a touchscreen Wind on display at CES, along with a very thin and light 13.3-inch U300 that's promised to be both affordable and jaw dropping.

That's the big news, but any real MSI junky should probably check out the link for more. [Laptop]

• Quadband GSM, HSDPA connectivity
• 2.2-inch reinforced glass AMOLED display
• 3.2 megapixel camera, without flash
• Built-in FM Radio
• Dedicated music player control buttons
• 120 MB of User Memory
• microSD memory card slot
• USB 2.0 and Bluetooth 2.0

Yup...120 megabytes of on-board memory, and we don't know what sort of UI it's got: is the haptic feedback still there?

It does look like it's got a front-facing camera for 3G video calling at least, and I suppose the black metallic finish is quite interesting. The OLED screen should be good-looking too, but all in all the phone itself is a bit plain. It's due in Europe for around $430 (€300) in November with Asian and Middle East releases shortly after, but there's no word on pricing or timing for a North American version. [OLED-info, Unwiredview and Gizmos.es]