iPhone 4S Carrier Shootout: AU/KDDI vs. SoftBank Mobile

From SoftBank Sucks:

At best, in a residential area of Tokyo, SBM delivered a 2700 kbps download speed, which is less than 20% of the advertised 14.4 Mbps. At the same location, AU clocked in at only 1300 kbps. However, this is 40% of AU’s theoretical 3.1 Mbps maximum, which is actually quite good. Furthermore, at Shinjuku station, where the SBM iPhone averaged a usable but frustratingly slow 200 kbps, AU provided about 1350 kbps.

Lastly, he mentions two issues I immediately noticed, especially since my wife complained about emoji not working properly on her AU iPhone:

Basically, if you can’t live without emoji, you’ll need softbank until AU’s mail system catches up. the @ezweb.ne.jp mail address can be used but it will be an imap system that gets checked every 15 minutes, instead of being pushed to the phone instantly.

I expect AU will fix the emoji issue but doubt they will offer push email to the iPhone in the near future, if ever.