A customer is suing Apple over its iPhone 3G, saying it does not download web pages and music at twice the rate of its predecessor, as the company advertises.
The 3G, which relies on a high-speed worldwide standard to download data, connects to the network "less than 25 per cent of the time," according to a complaint filed by a user last week in the US Federal Court in Birmingham, Alabama.
Plaintiff Jessica Smith is seeking class action status on behalf of other consumers.
Apple, which advertises the iPhone 3G as being "Twice as fast. Half the price," sold 1 million of the handsets in the first three days after they went on sale last month.
The company has released a software update to improve its network connections after program glitches were reported to have affected call quality.
Smith "noticed that her internet connection, receipt and sending of email, text messages and other data transfers through the device were slower than expected and advertised", and she experienced "an inordinate amount of dropped calls", according to her complaint.
The phone competes with models from Research in Motion and Samsung Electronics.
Apple spokeswoman Susan Lundgren declined to comment on the suit.