Apple and AT&T sued -- again -- for slow 3G speed

For at least the seventh time since the second-generation iPhone was released, Apple is being sued over its impossibly popular iPhone, and once again a user is claiming that AT&T's 3G network doesn't come close to meeting the expectations set by Apple's advertisements.

In a suit filed by one Damone Dickerson of New Jersey, Dickerson claims that Apple's claims of the iPhone 3G's performance are false. Rather than receiving fast and uninterrupted service, Dickerson says he often couldn't connect to the 3G network at all, and "that it did not provide full and continual service."

AT&T's 3G service seems to be at the root of many complaints about the iPhone, with complaints -- and lawsuits -- about the service quality stretching from California to New York to Florida. Apple and AT&T have both requested the dismissal of Avi Koschitzki's lawsuit in New York in December, but that case appears to be ongoing.

I know where these people are coming from. I can attest that -- compared to Verizon and Sprint -- AT&T's 3G service is considerably slower and has less complete coverage, based on personal testing and benchmarking of USB 3G modems used with a laptop. Cell phones of course have different range and throughput considerations, but those results should be generally applicable to handsets as well, at least on a broad scale, and it doesn't surprise me at all that some users are having a lot of trouble getting AT&T's 3G network to live up to its promises.

Meanwhile, rumors are bubbling that Apple's next version of the iPhone will include a radio that would support theoretical throughput of 7.2Mbps on the device. Of course, "support" isn't quite the same thing as backing that up with real-world results.

How well would such a device really perform? And, more importantly, how would Apple decide to advertise it?