I'd like to thank everyone for posting, I really think this thread will benefit current/future owners of the N900 with trouble shooting and comparing download speeds in there area amongst different carriers.

For myself it seems I need to switch to another carrier (t-mobile in my area) if I'm going to use this tablet for heavy Internet usage. It seems download speed of 100k on att edge network is reasonable for email but I can imagine surfing getting cumbersome.

Keep the posts coming, thanks again.