Sprint continues rollout of EVDO Rev. A

Sprint started rolling out their EV-DO Revision A network last month with coverage in San Diego and Seattle. I was supposed to get a USB Rev. A device to test out in both these cities, but that never happened for some reason. The USB device would allow me to connect to this faster EVDO network with my Samsung Q1 UMPC device, but I do not believe they have Mac drivers available yet so it wouldn't work on my MacBook Pro. Sprint posted a press release yesterday announcing that the rollout continues with 10 more cities added. The newest cities are New York, LA, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Detroit, Denver, Baltimore, Providence, and New Jersey. Existing cities are Seattle, San Diego, Las Vegas, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, Hartford, Boston, Buffalo/Rochester, Sacramento, and Salt Lake City.

The increase in speeds are primarily seen in the upload of data. Current EV-DO upload speeds range from 50-70 kbps and EV-DO Rev. A has speeds of 300-400 kbps. Download speeds increase slightly to 450-800 kbps from 400-700 kbps. If you sign up for a new two-year contract unlimited data runs US$59.99. They also have metered plans and a plan with a one-year contract. Check out the Sprint Mobile Broadband page for all the details.