Originally Posted by H2O_Goalie
"Blows it away"? That's hilarious. First of all, Cingular hasn't turned on the UMTS/HSDPA system anywhere but a handful of markets yet, while both Verizon and Sprint have got EVDO in most major cities (and Sprint is getting set to roll out Rev. A). Second of all, HSDPA speeds are claimed to be 400-700kbps down (according to the Cingular website)...EVDO (Rev. 0) is also claimed at 400-700 down (again, according to Verizon's website). I regularly get 1.2Mbps here in Memphis with Verizon. If you "fall back" to EDGE speeds (as you're likely to, since Cingular doesn't have much 3G coverage yet) you're going to get maybe 100kbps tops.
It's my understanding that the actual improvement in the UMTS/HSDPA system is upload speed, not download. Which is great if you're trying to stream video from your laptop or use VoIP...none of which the OP specified.
What's more, our experiences here in the US are essentially irrelevant. The OP will be attempting to utilize this service in Europe. He/she needs to check with the European providers.
UMTS-HSPDA is available in the follwing Markets:
Arizona—Phoenix
California—San Diego
California—San Francisco and San Jose
District of Columbia and Baltimore
Illinois—Chicago
Massachusetts—Boston
Nevada—Las Vegas
Oregon—Portland
Texas—Austin
Texas—Dallas
Texas—Houston
Utah—Salt Lake City
Washington—Seattle and Tacoma
I haved used it in those I
bolded. NYC is actially the next market to get turned on, and Washington DC is unoffical - actually you will find some markets are unoffical HSPDA/UMTA Markets.
HSPDA is a leap ahead of VZW and Sprint, they are just careful to not over set expectation so that they don't disappoint.
-Vincent