We all know that updating our iPhone, iPod touch or iPad to iOS 4.2 gets you cool new marquee features like AirPlay and AirPrint, but did you also know that it can help minimize congestion on your wireless network, which also improves your battery life?
AppleInsider is reporting that the new iOS 4.2 update has brought a lot more to the table than simply what Apple is advertising. According to Nokia Siemens Networks, tests reveal that iOS 4.2 also supports Network Controlled Fast Dormancy technology on the iPhone (and presumably, the iPad 3G as well).
Network Controlled Fast Dormancy (NCFD) “reduces network congestion by keeping smartphones in an ‘intermediate state’ instead of alternating between idle and always active on the network.” The technology was developed by Nokia Siemens Networks.
NCFD allows handsets to wake up more quickly while in this intermediate state, which helps conserve battery life while not in use. More importantly for an overtaxed network such as AT&T, it also “reduces the number of signals needed to start a data connection between a smartphone and a network.” Less data flying around on a network, better transfer rates for all, in theory.
While Nokia Siemens Networks didn’t elaborate on what kind of tests they ran to confirm that the iPhone was using NCFD, they did note that the device “will take advantage of NCFD on networks that support it.” Nokia has already implemented the technology into all of their smartphones released this year.
“According to one Middle Eastern operator, smartphones on a Nokia Siemens Networks network had 11 hours of battery life compared to 6 hours on a competing network,” AppleInsider noted. “Testing in North America found that Nokia Siemens Networks' ‘smart networks’ generate ‘up to 50 percent less smartphone signaling.’”
Right now, no one knows for sure if AT&T’s network has actually deployed NCFD, but a report in The Wall Street Journal earlier this year claimed that executives from the telco had flown to Cupertino to give the iPhone developers a “crash course in wireless networking,” which resulted in a number of significant changes for the device and less strain on the AT&T network.
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