With today’s approval of the iPhone by the FCC the final specs for the long awaited device have become public record. There’s been speculation for some time that the iPhone wouldn’t ship with more than EDGE wireless network connectivity, and though most of us wireless broadband junkies were holding out hope today’s announcement was the final nail in the coffin. No UMTS or HSDPA in the works - just plain old EDGE.

EDGE works well for retrieving email synchronized through Exchange or other POP3/IMAP services, but even with text-only web pages, it can be a bit slow. And large media files - you can forget about it.

If Apple’s play is to truly make the iPhone a mobile/wireless music and entertainment device (mobile iTunes, anyone?), why would they skimp on the slow data rates of EDGE?

One potential reason could be that they are waiting for Cingular to upgrade all their networks to UMTS/HSPDA. Though current Cingular/ATT 3G coverage is growing, there are still major population areas throughout the country that don’t have the higher bandwidth 3G provides.

There’s no doubt that future versions of iPhone will have the faster wireless options, and in the near term EDGE connectivity will be sufficient for the majority of iPhone users. But with the current adoption of wireless devices, the massive public interest in the iPhone, and push in the marketplace for mobile-enabled services, Apple better have plans on the drawing board already to make their high speed phone truly high speed.