Sprint details EV-DO plans

Sprint Nextel Corp. has unveiled its plans, regarding the company's EV-DO network. Sprint's EV-DO network, referred to as Sprint Power Vision, currently covers more than half of the U.S. population and provides access to a range of audio, video and data applications. The carrier plans to expand it further and expects it to reach about 190 million people by the end of this year.

At the same time Sprint plans to start implementing the EV-DO Revision A technology, beginning in the first quarter of 2007, as was revealed last week. The new technology will lead to a significant increase in the upload speeds, which should reach average 300-400 Kbps versus the current 70 - 144 Kpbs. The average download speeds increase only from 400 -700 Kpbs to 450-800 Kpbs. These faster data rates will allow the carrier to provide users with high-speed video telephony, music on demand, video messaging, large file uploads as well as high performance push-to-talk capability. Sprint hopes that the coverage of the EV-DO Revision A network will reach about 220 million people in Q3 2007.

Revision A capable data cards are planned to be commercially available in Q3 2006.

Source: Sprint Nextel