Orange admits to capping 3G speeds in France

Orange, the exclusive iPhone carrier in France, has admitted to capping their 3G download speeds after receiving many complaints from users and several customers comparing speeds to other European countries. iPhone users on the T-Mobile network in Germany were repeatedly receiving download speeds of over 1800kbps, whilst those on France’s Orange network were struggling to reach 400kbps. Orange’s technical support lines were jammed with calls of slow speeds, and in some cases the support technicians voluntarily renamed the Access Point Name and other variables to increase download speeds. These customers reported speeds in excess of 3mbps.

iPhone 3G users in France almost immediately suspected Orange of capping 3G speeds after numerous comparisons of other networks—many of whom were arguing that what they were doing was in direct violation of the service agreements between Orange and the customers. The potential speeds of the HSDPA 3G device could reach up to 7.2mbps. After a meeting on Monday at Orange’s Paris headquarters, the company said it would raise the download cap for iPhone users from 384Kbps to 1Mbps by September 15th. This is an improvement on the ridiculous cap that is in place now, but still slow compared to what “3G” is supposedly capable of.

Via [AppleInsider]