Sprint steps up 3G rollout

US Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) operator Sprint Nextel yesterday stepped up aggressive plans for the expansion of its Power Vision 3G network.

The operator’s Evolution Data Only (EV-DO) network already covers over half of the US population with mobile broadband data services, and by year-end Sprint expects the network to reach an estimated 190 million people nationwide.

Sprint plans to roll out second generation technology upgrades later this year, known as EV-DO Revision A, which will bring speed increases and additional mobility benefits to users beginning in the first quarter of next year.

By the end of September 2007, the operator plans to reach about 220 million people in the US with its advanced network.

Sprint will market EV-DO Revision A compatible data cards in the third quarter of 2006, which will work on the existing EV-DO network until the next generation service is broadly available in the first quarter of next year.

Revision A promises peak download data rates of up to 3.1Mbps, compared to 2.0Mbps at present, and peak upload data rates of up to 1.8Mbps, compared to 144Kbps.

Average download speeds should improve to 450-800Kbps, from 400-700Kbps, and average uplink speeds should reach 300-400Kpbs, versus 70-144Kpbs.

Faster data rates will enable richer applications and services such as enhanced video telephony, music on demand, video messaging, large file uploads and high performance push to talk capabilities.

Tags: 3G, Sprint Nextel

This entry was posted on March 31st, 2006 and is filed under Operators. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or Trackback from your own site.