Orange Admits To Capping iPhone 3G Speeds

Maybe it’s not all Apple’s fault after all. French wireless carrier Orange has admitted to capping 3G network speeds at 384Kbps for iPhone customers, AppleInsider reports. Perhaps that’s why iPhone users on Germany’s T-Mobile network were reporting speeds as high as 1800Kbps while Orange customers’ data moved at a much slower pace. As with other carriers that recently launched the new iPhone 3G, Orange’s customer care lines lit up. In some cases, representatives were able to dramatically increase specific iPhone users’ speeds to as much as 3Mbps by simply altering some technical parameters. Orange told FranceInfo that the network speeds were capped to preserve network stability, but that it intends to raise the download cap for iPhone users to 1Mbps by Sept. 15.

It’s doubtful that will resolve the concern of many Orange customers that have signed a petition saying the artificial limitation is in direct violation of Orange’s service agreement, which should allow for HSDPA speeds up to 7.2Mbps. And it’s likely to stoke the debate on whether iPhone 3G connection issues are the fault of Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) or the carriers. Is AT&T (NYSE: T) doing the same thing in the United States? Apple may not want to rustle the feathers of its carrier partners, but it would serve the company well to deflect criticism if it’s not a chipset or software problem that’s crippling iPhone 3Gs. If the blame rightfully belongs elsewhere, why hasn’t Apple said so? My guess is there’s a group of snafus gathering here, the fallout of which we’ll be seeing for some time to come.

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