So we know that the iPhone 3G has download speeds that are 2.4x faster than the EDGE connection found on the previous version of the phone. While this is all good and well, we’re still curious why the download speed for the iPhone is capped at 1.4Mbps down when AT&T’s 3G HSDPA network is fully capable of 3.6Mbps down. Thankfully, AT&T has the answer.

Apparently all mobile smartphones on the AT&T network are capped at this 1.4Mbps speed. They cite battery life as one of the primary concerns for maintaining the lower data speed. Essentially, the faster you’re downloading data, the quicker you’re going to use up that battery. Another concern is likely that there will be a lot more 3G users come July 11th, so they will need all of the bandwidth they can get.

[via Gizmodo]