With the launch of 10 EV-DO Revision A markets today, Sprint Nextel says it has more than met its goal of covering 40 million people with the technology by the end of this year.
The carrier said it now offers Rev. A coverage to 60 million potential customers. The markets launched today include New York City; Los Angeles; San Francisco; Denver; Detroit; Baltimore, Md.; Washington, D.C.; Providence, R.I.; and New Jersey. Sprint Nextel has already turned on its Rev. A coverage in a number of cities, including Sacramento and San Diego, Calif.; Las Vegas; Seattle; Boston; Milwaukee.; Hartford, Conn.; and Buffalo and Rochester, N.Y.
The company also introduced a Rev. A-capable modem that connects to a laptop computer via a USB port. The Ovation U720 from Novatel Wireless joins three wireless laptop cards that are also Rev. A capable.
Sprint Nextel is not charging extra for data plans in areas that have Rev. A coverage; its data plans range from $30 per month for 40 MB of data to $80 per month for unlimited data access. Customers who sign a new two-year agreement may be able to get unlimited data for $60 per month; a voice plan is not required.
The new Power Vision upgrade also is expected to support a CDMA push-to-talk feature that will be comparable to the carrier’s iDEN technology.
Previously, Sprint has announced Rev A was available in San Diego, Seattle, Las Vegas, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, Hartford, Boston, Buffalo/Rochester, Sacramento and Salt Lake City. By 3Q 2007, Sprint’s Power Vision network is expected to be completely upgraded to the faster EV-DO Revision A. Sprint’s Power Vision network (including both EV-DO Revisions 0 and A) is in 220 major metropolitan areas across the country.
Cingular plans even faster HSDPA in 2007, possibly as early as next month, reports PhoneScoop. The carrier will upgrade to a maximum download speed to 7.2 Mbps to the network, though with HSDPA upload remains capped at 384 Kbps. The faster speeds will only be available to users with new data cards, such as the Sierra Wireless 875 card while earlier HSDPA cards can only do 3.6 Mbps. Cingular’s handsets are still limited to 1.8 Mbps downloads.
Which is faster or the better deal, Sprint’s EVDO Rev A or Cingular’s HSDPA? Will Will HSDPA Beat WiMAX? It depends. Check out EVDO Forums, EVDO Coverage, Cingular’s HSDPA Forum and the speed tests on Broadband Reports.
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[...] Now the only trick is finding Verizon Rev A service. Sprint is beating Verizon on EVDO Rev A upgrades. The carrier said it now offers Rev. A coverage to 60 million potential customers. [...]
Left by dailywireless.org » Rev A Cards from Verizon on December 18th, 2006