Sprint To Deploy High-Speed Wireless Technology This Year

Sprint said Thursday the successful completion of its EV-DO Revision A tests has prompted it to speed up deployment of the high-speed portable wireless technology. Sprint said it plans to deploy the new service during the fourth quarter.

The high-speed service features average download speeds of 450 to 800 kbps and average upload speeds of 300 to 400 kbps, bringing the Sprint service into competition with DSL technology.

Sprint said it expects to reach over 200 million people in 220 major metropolitan areas across the U.S. by the end of 2006 with the service, which it has dubbed Power Vision. Sprint said it expects the entire Power Vision network to be completely upgraded to EV-DO Rev A by the third quarter of 2007.

Sprint said it completed the first EV-DO Rev A data connection in San Diego last week. Sprint noted that it has demonstrated a range of applications including IP video telephony, high performance push-to-talk service, multi-service video conferencing, real time gaming and video streaming.

"We have taken this technology out of the laboratory and are currently integrating it into our network," said Kathy Walker, Sprint's chief network officer, in a statement.