While we first got wind of a EDGE Evolution rollout from Ericsson, Nokia Siemens isn't about to let one of those young upstart carrier equipment manufacturers steal its top-of-the-heap EDGE thunder, and has just announced the "launch" of its Dual Carrier EDGE software solution, marking the first steps of rolling out EDGE Evolution to the company's radio portfolio. The software upgrade doubles current EDGE speeds to 592kbps, and will be available from Q3 2008 onwards. Nokia Siemens won't stop there, though, EDGE is going to get another bump not too long after that to EGPRS 2, with download speeds of 1.2Mbps and uplink speeds up to 473kpbs. What's unclear at the moment is what existing phones (iPhone, we're looking at you) will be able to manage this with a firmware update, and which ones are going to be stuck in the past, but we're hoping for a good bit of the former.

[Via GigaOM]

Hoping to squeeze a little more life out of the world's legacy (read: non-3G) GSM networks -- and there are many -- Ericsson has announced that it will deploy the recently-ratified "EDGE Evolution" protocol by 2009. That in itself isn't terribly interesting; after all, 2009 is a long way off yet. What is interesting, though, is that EDGE Evolution will require nothing more than a software upgrade to existing Ericsson network hardware (much the same as the original EDGE) and promises downstream speeds as high as 1Mbps, making it speedy enough to hang with UMTS and EV-DO Rev. 0. Remember how quickly AT&T Wireless (the old AT&T Wireless, that is) and T-Mobile were able to take their EDGE networks national once they started deployment? If it gains traction, EDGE Evolution should be able to roll out every bit as quickly, bringing 3G speeds to areas that would otherwise go without for many years to come. Of course, compatible handsets are another matter entirely, but manufacturers have until 2009 to get the ball rolling. Let's get to work, folks.

[Via Phone Scoop]

With everyone all "EV-DO" this and "HSUPA" that these days, there doesn't seem to be a lot of love for our old friend EDGE anymore (the wireless data protocol, not the U2 guitarist). Well Ericsson has just announced plans to upgrade the long-in-the-tooth spec to a zippy 1Mbps by 2009, citing EDGE Evolution as a feasible stopgap solution that will squeeze a few more years (and a few more dollars) out of those legacy networks. Basically a software upgrade to existing hardware, Evolution allows the network to operate more efficiently and consequently deliver two to three times the bandwidth of plain jane EDGE. It's not clear, however, if current handsets can be modified to take advantage of the higher speeds, so while it would be great to wake up one day with a supercharged phone, we're not holding our breath.