So we know that the iPhone 3G has download speeds that are 2.4x faster than the EDGE connection found on the previous version of the phone. While that is all good and well, we’re still curious why the download speed for the iPhone is capped at 1.4Mbps down when AT&T’s 3G HSDPA network is fully capable of 3.6Mbps down. Thankfully, AT&T has the reply.

Apparently all mobile smartphones on the AT&T network are

capped at that 1.4Mbps speed. They quote battery life as one of the primary concerns for maintaining the lower input speed. Essentially, the faster you’re downloading details, the quicker you’re going to use up that battery. Another concern is likely that there will be a lot more 3G users come July 11th, so they will need all of the bandwidth they can get.

[via Gizmodo]

Orginal post by Scott Barr