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Thursday November 16, 2006
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Hartford! Nashville! Shreveport! Shout out for high speed. The 3G, high speed cellular Internet race is in full effect now, with Sprint, Verizon and Cingular falling all over each other to roll out new networks in surprising cities. Here's what we heard just this week, and how the competition shapes up.
Sprint has the fastest network, EV-DO Rev A. Just today they flipped the switches in Hartford, Boston, Pittsburgh, Buffalo and Rochester, NY, bringing their total of Rev A cities to nine. They also have a slightly slower, but still speedy EV-DO Rev 0 network nationwide.
Verizon Wireless is busy taking the slightly older EV-DO Rev 0 and pumping it out to folks in less metropolitan areas. Today they announced high-speed activation in Shreveport and Bossier City, LA and Wichita Falls, TX. Yesterday, it was the Rio Grande Valley, and Springfield, Northampton and Amherst, Mass. Their network already covers most major US cities, they're just filling in the gaps at this point. They say they'll start doing Rev A next year.
Cingular's HSDPA network hit Nashville today and earlier this month juiced up Greensboro, NC; Toledo, OH, Columbia, SC, Tulsa, OK and Louisville, KY. They're up to several dozen cities now, though they don't have the same nationwide range as Sprint's or Verizon's high-speed networks quite yet. They are starting to churn out some smartphones for the new network, though, including the impressive Cingular 8525.
In my experience, EV-DO and HSDPA are about the same speed; EV-DO Rev A is faster. What do you do with this kind of speed on the run? You browse the Web with a PC Card in your laptop or through a smartphone. With a regular phone, you download music, watch videos, and play podcasts. The carriers don't charge you more to enjoy high-speed data, though you may need to buy a new phone, PDA or card to hook in to the system. So check your carrier's coverage map and see if higher speeds have just come to your area - you might be surprised.
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