Quote:
Originally Posted by jimd144
You would need something like the iphone for that.
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Not exactly, and iPhone is certainly not the magic bullet to have simultaneous voice/data.
If iPhone, it would need to be an iPhone "3G", and only while you have 3G coverage, and only on a carrier that supports that feature. At the same time, there are dozens of 3G/UMTS/HSDPA phones and they have come well before the iPhone 3G. There is nothing special about the iPhone in this arena. In fact, when the first gen GPRS/EDGE iPhone was introduced, most of the high-end phones were already UMTS/HSDPA and the geeks were up in arms about the iPhone being so @$$ backwards to not support high-speed data.
3G is the one of the biggest misnomers in cellular technology. Marketing pushes that term and the average consumer simply does not know the difference. ATT has done a good job confusing people, initially making them believe that ATT was the only player in town with "3G".
Back to simultaneous voice and data: The fact is, ANY UMTS (3G, if you like) phone is capable of simultaneous voice and data if the carrier also supports it. The problem is that ATT's UMTS/HSDPA/HSUPA coverage is no where near Sprint's EVDO network. The result is that many people are seeing their phone falling back to EDGE or GPRS (look for class action law suits reflecting this), which are like modem speeds and NO simultaneous voice/data.
Yes, EVDO Rev. A is capable of simultaneous voice and data. The original plan was to roll out EVDV, but now most carriers are looking at LTE (with Sprint staking their future on WiMax).
I am disappointed that Verizon nor Sprint enabled the D/V feature on Rev. A. I am even more disappointed that ATT did not enable video calling. They only allow video sharing... It would have been cool to have video conferencing-like capabilities over the cellular network.