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Friday November 17, 2006
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Yes, I know I'm turning this into 3GLog this week. But the hits just keep on coming, and I want to share them with you.
Cingular sent me an e-mail today saying they don't want to be seen as behind on 3G. They started building out their network later than Verizon and Sprint, who already had national high-speed, cellular data setups before Cingular launched a dozen cities. But Big Orange has clearly been working hard, as the list of 3G cities after the jump shows. Check the list to see if Cingular now has coverage where you live and work - it's a lot more current than my old PCMag.com review. (In fact, it's current as of today.) Cingular's HSDPA system is also the only one that roams overseas, though you'll get burned with very high data charges if you don't subscribe to an already-expensive international roaming data plan.
The one thing Cingular is missing at this point is a compelling 3G consumer handset service. Yes, they have 3G phones, including the admirable Samsung Sync. And they have a few cool applications, like XM Radio and Melodeo Mobilcast podcasting, on some handsets. But their "Cingular Video" service has less of a video selection than Sprint TV, and they lack a downloadable music store.
Cingular needs to come out with a real reason for consumers to buy 3G for something other than Web access on smartphones and PC Cards. Then again, don't all the carriers need to do that, to some extent?
List of markets after the jump.
Alabama: Birmingham
Arkansas: Little Rock
Arizona: Phoenix area; Tuscon
California: Bakersfield, Fresno, Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco/San Jose/Santa Clara area
Delaware: Wilmington
Florida: Daytona Beach, Jacksonville, Melbourne, Orlando, Tampa area, Southeast Florida (West Palm Beach/Fort Lauderdale/Miami)
Georgia: Atlanta
Illinois: Chicago area
Indiana: Indianapolis
Kansas: Kansas City area
Kentucky: Louisville
Louisiana: Baton Rouge, New Orleans area
Massachusetts: Boston area
Maryland: Baltimore
Michigan: Detroit area
Missouri: Kansas City area, St. Louis
North Carolina: Cary, Durham, Raleigh; Charlotte; Greensboro, Winston-Salem
Nevada: Las Vegas area
New Jersey: Newark area, New Brunswick, Trenton
New York: NYC
Ohio: Akron, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Toledo
Oklahoma: Tulsa
Oregon: Portland
Pennsylvania: Allentown, Harrisburg, Scranton, Philadelphia
South Carolina: Columbia
Tennessee: Knoxville, Memphis, Nashville
Texas: Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth area, Houston, San Antonio
Utah: Provo, Salt Lake City, West Valley
Virginia: Arlington/Alexandria
Washington: Seattle/Tacoma, Vancouver
Washington, DC
And for the international partners: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Hong Kong, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Netherlands, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, and the UK. Whew!
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November 17, 2006 5:22 PM
Catching up or no.....Sprints Power Vision is still 5 times faster than Cingulars EDGE.
November 17, 2006 7:11 PM
That's a non sequitur. Sprint's Vision 1xRTT is about the same speed as Cingular's EDGE, and their Power Vision EV-DO is about the same speed as Cingular's HSDPA. Sprint's Rev A may be faster. I'm testing it soon. But it isn't five times faster.
November 17, 2006 8:27 PM
Sprint's wireless broadband marketing is 5 times funnier than Cingular's wireless broadband marketing.
November 18, 2006 12:32 PM
sure... the Sprint ads are cute
but the word funny does appropriately describe sprint's capital funding for network development. In a recent press release, I noticed Sprint has spent $90 million this year on nationwide... that's laugh-out-loud funny compared to Cingular's roughly $6.5 billion earmarked for 2006.
References:
http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/stories/2006/11/13/daily40.html?jst=b_ln_hl
http://cingular.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=press_releases&item=1765