A lot of people have been complaining over the slow network connection that the iPhone 3G has been experiencing. I even heard of one woman who threatened to sue Apple over false advertising for the iPhone 3G's speed.

A new study made by an independent group, however, suggests that the slow connection has more to do with the network carriers than the iPhone itself.

The study analyzed data from 2,600 speed tests from all over the world, and it shows that 3G networks are performing faster than EDGE. Worst case scenarios showed some users were not able to connect to the network, while others reported 3G performance that's seven times faster than EDGE.

Users who experienced the most problems were from major metropolitan cities where the most iPhone users reside, such as San Francisco. This suggests that 3G towers are getting overloaded. Basically, too many swimmers in a very large pool. The system's swamped.

Apple won't be able to do much with a software update in this case - the likely approach would be to optimize the network towers themselves. Apple hopes to alleviate things by improving 3G signal management with the next software update. In the meantime, if you want a faster signal, go to Canada.

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