Rabbitte’s radio shocker: ‘The future of radio is online’

It's possible to get better EDGE than 3G, yes. GSM uses 200kHz channels, so 5MHz is 25 channels, the last version of EDGE can use multiple channels. I think they interleave the channels vs sectors. It's ages since I did this stuff, I think GSM is 2MHz per allocation rather than 5MHz.

The TOP speed of EDGE if you had the final version and channel bonding is about 1.2Mbps. But cell can in theory serve multiple sets of channels at 1.2Mbps. There is no CDMA cell breathing.

But no-one here has that kind of EDGE. They invested in 3G /HSPA+ upgrades, not GSM as the top speed of 3G sounds better. For the same amount of spectrum at cell edge the EDGE performs far better than 3G. 3G performance degrades by 50% when maximum number of connections AND cell shrinks. GSM & EDGE performance is unchanged as users added, but if the GSM system has only one user most of the spectrum is idle, 3G always uses all the spectrum of the 5MHz, so speed is unpredictable and can vary from 21Mbps to 0.12bps or disconnect at the same spot. GSM / EDGE will never do that, if you have a 200kbs connection, it stays as a 200kbps connection.

For voice GSM uses GMSK which is very very robust. Much further range than QPSK which has more range than QAM. Because LTE is native IP and emphasis is on small cells with capacity in design (think Urban WiFi Hot Spot with x10 range) it gives NO extra range for voice calls, because they don't exist, it's VOIP.

GSM uses a low bit rate codec and dedicated framing over GMSK, so beats all the others for voice coverage. The 28kbps of the old Nokia N9120 was actually two GMSK timeslots, so rarely ever dropped out and good for Fax or dialup. EDGE uses QPSK and QAM in the timeslots, so much lower range than GSM voice but 240kbps with no cell breathing, with a 1.2Mbps version possible (but never deployed here).

The EDGE in Ireland is the original slowest version I think.

3G was mainly a 5MHz version of the US CDMA-1, a grossly inferior system to GSM. It was a political decision and technically a poor choice to replace GSM.