iPhone 3G: coverage in the UK
I don’t know about other UK users, but one of the first questions I had in my head after the not-so-surprising iPhone 3G announcement (having settled the “will I upgrade” question within nanoseconds) was: “3G huh - what’s O2’s coverage like with that then?”
The question was prompted in no small part by my somewhat frustrating experience using my first-gen iPhone over the EDGE connection - or rather, more often than not over the plain old GSM connection, since O2’s EDGE provision seems limited to sporadic pockets of major city centres only. Maybe they knew 3G was coming and so didn’t rush to extend that 30% coverage they lauded at the original iPhone’s UK announcement?
Anyhow, after some digging around on the O2 site I came across their coverage-checker, which allows you the slightly mystifying choices of ‘current’, ‘future’, or (less mystifyingly) ‘HSDPA’ coverage. You can only search by postcode (mine is, apparently, covered - yay), so I just zoomed out the old map and stitched it together to get this (purple means you’re bathed in 3G goodness):
Hmm, looks to me a lot like the EDGE situation - here’s hoping coverage widens out sooner rather than later. For now, you should be fine in a built-up metropolitan area (much like our cousins across the pond), but you may find yourself on old-fashioned GSM outside of those areas (very much like our cousins across the pond).