Tech
Hold on! Don't buy that new Sprint phone just yet
If you were thinking about buying a new Sprint phone (or even a Verizon one), you may want to hold off until their networks are fully upgraded to EV-DO. For CDMA, the technology on which both Sprint and Verizon have based their wireless data networks (as opposed to GPRS for Cingular and T-Mobile), EV-DO is the next evolutionary step beyond CDMA's most prevalent iteration (known as 1xRTT).
If you were thinking about buying a new Sprint phone (or even a Verizon one), you may want to hold off until their networks are fully upgraded to EV-DO. For CDMA, the technology on which both Sprint and Verizon have based their wireless data networks (as opposed to GPRS for Cingular and T-Mobile), EV-DO is the next evolutionary step beyond CDMA's most prevalent iteration (known as 1xRTT).
Whereas CDMA 1xRTT offered mobile users about 80 kbps of throughput (way below the advertised 144 kpbs but still faster than any GPRS implementation), EV-DO should realistically quadruple that. This means that EV-DO-based customers should get data rates on their cell phones comparable to what we're seeing on cable modems and DSL. But to take advantage of it, you'll need the special wireless gear (cell phones and PC Cards for your notebooks or PDAs) that supports the higher speed technology. One other question that's begging to be asked (and that I've asked before) is, with data rates like this, why bother with Wi-Fi when CDMA can do?