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Originally Posted by Effendi
In Spain as well as in France you find GSM/GPRS networks almost everywhere (3 per every country) and also UMTS networks should be present in bigger towns for sure.
No idea about EDGE, probably it's supported by some Spanish and French operators, but I don't know which ones. If so it should have a bigger coverage than UMTS.
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That's true, at least in France. You can get UMTS coverage with SFR or Orange Fr only in big cities, while EDGE is available from Bouygues Telecom and Orange Fr almost everywhere they have GSM coverage. (Wind's roaming agreements works with all 3 networks, including UMTS - at least with SFR : couldn't test with Orange Fr beacause they have no UMTS coverage in my area).
Which means that, with nearly the same connection speed, you get far better coverage with EDGE. I have a Nokia 9500 (GRPS/EDGE) and a PC Card (GPRS/UMTS). The PC Card is easier to use (just insert it in the computer), but I almost always use the Nokia (though it requires bluetooth adapter and setup) because of the EDGE very good coverage.
There actually are EDGE/UMTS phones, because networks operators who launched UMTS are expanding their networks with EDGE (Orange Fr) or planning to do so (SFR). I'm not sure it's worth buying one of those, at least for France : EDGE coverage and speed is enough!