Although the iPhone has enjoyed many positive reviews among members of the mainstream press who got the phone 2 weeks prior to its release, one complaint that remains consistent among critics is the issue of AT&T’s slow EDGE network.
The New York Times’ David Pogue called it “excruciatingly slow.” Walter Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal said EDGE was “far slower” than the Verizon or Sprint networks used by most smartphones. And Edward Baig called the network “pokey.”
I imagine it will be more painful for current 3G users to downgrade to EDGE than it will be for non-3G users, especially those who have never owned smartphones. Regardless, the overall anti-EDGE sentiment should serve as a signal to Apple to upgrade the cellular network hardware on iPhone 2.0.