Will Apple add 3G to the iPhone in time for its UK debut? The answer must be a loud, screaming 'yes'. If it's not 3G-enabled by the time it arrives here, compared to what else will be in the shops it'll look a huffing, puffing slowcoach of a phone for mobile downloading and browsing.

Sure, judging from the early reviews of the iPhone, it's a truly ground-breaking piece of kit. The interface looks astonishing compared to other mobiles. It has Wi-Fi too for fast web access. But one glaring issue is the clunky performance of web browsing using AT&T's EDGE-enhanced GSM data network. And that is only going to look worse if it comes to Europe without 3G.

If the iPhone came to the UK in its present form, we'd be looking at a phone that's capable of GPRS-speed data only. That's around the equivalent speed of a dial-up 56kbps modem of a few years back (remember those?). Handsets supporting 3G with the latest HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access) technology could offer users content downloads and surfing at speeds up to 60-times faster than GPRS (3.6Mbps) by the time the iPhone arrives.

To put that into context: right now, a typical MP3 music file that takes just 5 - 10 seconds to download using a current 3G HSDPA mobile phone would take 4-5 minutes downloading via GPRS. The same goes for downloading videos and other stuff. Browsing is much faster on 3G with HSDPA too. Can you imagine explaining that one away when you're showing your mates your new, cutting-edge S---L---O---W iPhone?

And 3G HSDPA speeds are set to get faster over the coming months. By the year-end, an iPhone supporting just GPRS when using a mobile network could look very slow indeed.

But the iPhone has Wi-Fi too

Of course, the iPhone has Wi-Fi onboard, so doesn't rely on mobile networks for high-speed data. Anywhere there's a Wi-Fi network available, 3G won't matter. But what about when you're out and about, and not in the Wi-Fi comfort zone?

Current download speeds on standard 3G-enabled phones offer a theoretical maximum rate of up to 384kbps (although in practice, these are somewhat slower - around two-thirds headline-speed as a rule of thumb). That's around 7 times faster than GPRS top speeds. 3G with HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access) technology - or 3G broadband, as it's being called - currently boost that up to1.8Mbps or 3.6Mbps on suitably equipped mobile networks. That's up to 32 and 64 times faster than UK GPRS top speeds. By the end of this year, some 3G phones will be able to handle data downloads at up to 7.2Mbps (for when UK networks can support such speeds). And upload speeds will be increasing too.

Why delay the European iPhone?

An iPhone without 3G in the UK would be cutting-edge without the teeth. The explosive impact of the iPhone's amazing interface and new functionality would be compromised as soon it comes out. And what if you're asking customers to lock themselves into a two-year contract to get one, as is the case in the USA? By late 2009-early 2010, your two-year old GPRS-only high-end iPhone won't look such a smart phone, that's for sure. The average mobile then will deliver broadband speeds we're used to now on our desktop PCs.

Apple must realise that 3G is an issue that can't be ignored in Europe. Forget volumes, marketing and all that - surely that's one of the key reasons why the USA will have the iPhone on 29 June and we will have to wait till the end of the year to get our hands on an iPhone in the UK.

3G on the first UK iPhone? It's a certainty. Or, at least, it should be.