EDGE Networks and Smartphones

[Guest fasteye]

I've seen articles on the recent launch of the EDGE networks on Orange France and am also reliably informed that Orange UK has also already got EDGE in place.

Having had the opportunity to use EDGE on a device on AT&T in the US, I believe this would be a major boost for Smartphones if this became available on the SPV range here.

My question is, does anyone know when Orange plan to promote EDGE in the UK and how can I get access to it? I'm currently using a Treo 650 (boo!!) which does support EDGE and would like to see what sort of improvement can be seen over here.

For me it seems the ideal way to get high speed data connectivity with large coverage in a short space of time and would really boost the appeal of the Orange World services which can be too slow at times over GPRS.

Having seen issues with 3G on other carriers networks and the issues with battery life on 3G/wifi devices, EDGE might be just what I need to improve the experience of a smartphone dramatically whilst getting rid of all the battery and call hand-off issues.

Anyone know what Orange plan to do? Will there be increases in tariffs?