The i-mate is an Edge enabled phone:

GSM 850/900/1800/1900 for compatibility with all North American and European GSM networks
GPRS (Class 10, 32-48 kbps) and EDGE (up to 236 kbps)
Windows Mobile 5 Smartphone Edition operating system
64MB RAM (18MB available for user data and apps)
200 MHz TI OMAP CPU
MiniSD memory card slot
240�320, 65k color display
USB port
Bluetooth v1.2
WiFi 802.11b
1.3 megapixel (1280�1024) camera
Up to 5 hours talk time, 250 hours standby with included battery

I've read several reviews where they talk about using it on the Edge network.

I've never had anything to compare it to, so now that I have this 3125 sitting here displaying the E in the icon bar, it makes me wonder why the i-mate is not? Surreal Networks has a cab file that is supposed to enable the E but I tried it and it didn't do anything that I can tell. (Yes, I rebooted.)

Both the 3125 and the i-mate have Cingular chips in them right now, so I don't get why I'm not getting the E on the i-mate?

Is it possible I'm getting E speed but displaying the G symbol? And, if so, why? I want the E gosh darn it!!

Any ideas?

It's entirely possible you're getting E but displaying G. One thing I thought of though is are there two Cingular SIMs you're using, or just swapping one between them? If you have two, is one old and one new? The old one may not have EDGE enabled on it. Is one prepaid and one postpaid? If so, prepaid may not get EDGE. To tell for sure if you are getting EDGE go to http://text.dslreports.com/mspeed and run the speed test. I recall you're using prepaid data, so I'd run the 200k test so it doesn't cost you too much.

prepare to be bored to tears...here goes nothing:

Two different Cingular SIMs, one old and one new (both say 3G on them though)...both pre-paid. The older of the two Cingular SIMs was in the Cingular 3125 for the past couple days (prior to that it was in the MPx200 sitting in a drawer for a few months), and the new SIM was in the i-mate. I ran the test that way first then switched SIMs and ran it again. I also ran the test twice with each setup and also threw in the T-Mo SIM for good measure 'cuz I was curious.

Here's the 200k test results:
Click to view attachment

600k test
Click to view attachment

The numbers are kind of all over the place and I have no idea what is Edge speed and what isn't. It looks like Edge is basically 15-30 seconds (except for that one bad test) for a 200k file. GPRS is between 40 seconds and a minute for the same 200k. It does look like the i-mate is getting better than GPRS speeds when compared to the 220 that for certain is making a GPRS connection.

Really, the only thing I can tell for sure is that WiFi is fast!!
7 seconds for a 1MB file!

Well, the i-mate is definitely on EDGE. It's weird that it's usually slower than the 3125 with both SIMs though. As you said, data speeds are all over the place with phones though. I sometimes get a range from 200kb/s to 900kb/s. You can tell by looking at the T-Mobile test that the i-mate is getting EDGE though. If the test is faster than about 50kb/s you are getting faster than GPRS is possible of doing.

Have you tried manually entering the regedit to show the E? I did it for my brother's SDA, and it worked great. Go to HKLM\Drivers\BuiltIn\RIL in the registry and change the dword EnableDifferGprsEdgeIcon to the value 1. Let the phone sit for about 5 minutes then reboot.

I checked and that entry is already there. I restored my phone to just prior to making this change and that dword is not there. So, it was put there by Surreal's cab file. Yesterday, I installed that cab then immediately re-booted my phone and had troubles the first three times and then it seemed OK except for not changing the G to an E. I'll manually do it like you've said and then wait before I reboot. We'll see. <waiting, waiting, waiting...>

Also, thanks for the info regarding what E speed is. It's good to know that even if I don't get the "E" on my icon bar, I'm getting E speed.

OK...just waiting for the 5 minutes to pass then I'll post back the results. <fingers crossed>

Nope. Didn't work. Still got the G and no E. On the upside, I had no trouble re-booting!

I wonder if some other reg edit is hindering this? Sometime prior, I've added the "always on" GPRS and the "enable 802.11g" hacks.
---
So, let's see...

I just hard reset my phone and have done nothing to it (besides unlock it) except the "EnableDifferGprsEdgeIcon" from Smeg's suggestion waited 5 mins then turned it off and back on...



Nope. Still have the G and no E. Darn. Oh well, at least I'm getting the speed of E.