IDG News Service - Sprint Corp. will begin offering high-speed mobile data service for notebook PCs this month, and by the end of the year it plans to make the service available to about 143 million people and begin selling handsets for the service.
The company today laid out its plans to become the second major U.S. operator to build a network using Evolution-Data Optimized (EV-DO) technology. Based on the Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) protocol, EV-DO will typically provide 400K bit/sec. to 700Kbit/sec. downstream performance, with bursts of up to 2M bit/sec., according to Sprint. The other major CDMA carrier in the U.S., Verizon Wireless Inc., began its EV-DO rollout with two markets in 2003.
Sprint will focus at first on business use, with rollouts of the service in airports and central business districts, according to the company. This month, it will introduce the service in major airports and business areas in 34 markets, expanding in the third quarter to offer broad coverage across 14 metropolitan areas, reaching 92 million potential users.
In the fourth quarter, broad rollouts across a total of 36 metropolitan areas will reach 143 million people, and by early next year, the service will cover at least 200 urban and suburban markets in about 60 metropolitan areas, the company said.
Users at first will only be able to use EV-DO with Sprint PCS Connection Cards, which fit into the PC Card slot of a notebook PC. They are priced at $249.99 before contract credits and discounts. In the fourth quarter, the company plans to begin offering handsets for the service as well as applications for both consumers and business users.
Sprint said it will offer a flexible pricing plan for business customers with the PC Card clients. Pricing will start at $40 per month for 40MB of data and go up to a cap of $90 in months when the customer accesses more data. Businesses can also buy unlimited data for $80 per month. When outside EV-DO markets but still in range of Sprint's national network, customers will be able to use the cards on Sprint's slower CDMA2000 1x service.
More information on the EV-DO service can be found at www.sprint.com/business/products/products/wirelessHighSpeedData.jsp.
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