Sprint eases into Rev. A

Sprint has upgraded its first market to CDMA's latest and greatest, giving the people of San Diego access to the fastest 3G technology yet.

But while Sprint has big plans for its future EV-DO Revision A network, its launch of the upgraded network this year is modest. There will be no big service push or PowerVision II. Instead, Sprint is quietly educating its business customers on the technical advantages of Rev. A, while reserving its big guns for after the network's complete rollout next year.

Rev. A's advantages are substantial. It is the first mobile technology to couple broadband upload speeds with download speeds, creating a more synchronous pipe for two-way data communications. It also is the first 3G technology to whittle away at mobile data networks' horrible latency. Those reduced delays, as well as built-in quality of service, make it the first network capable of supporting real-time applications, such as head-to-head gaming, video conferencing and voice over IP (VoIP).

Sprint, however, isn't selling those particular applications directly. Instead, it's promoting the new network's ability to support those applications, working with a developer community and, in some cases, working with its enterprise customers to integrate their existing applications into the Rev. A fold, said Ron Wells, manager of product marketing for Sprint's mobile broadband service. For instance, the Associated Press has integrated its AP Snapfeed application into Rev. 0 and Rev. A laptops, which automatically push news copy and photos from AP correspondents to a central news server, Wells said. Sprint also is working to integrate location services into GPS-enabled PC cards, turning laptops into navigation tools, Wells said.

So far, Sprint is only supporting those applications, not providing them. It's essentially providing unrestricted access at the same rates as its standard EV-DO mobile broadband service. In fact, Wells said Sprint isn't even restricting VoIP use over the pipe, a potential cannibalizer of Sprint's core wireless revenues. A user can download Skype or any other VoIP application onto a laptop and make calls over the new low-latency, high-capacity uplink. That's not to say those applications aren't coming. Sprint plans to roll out Rev. A in 20 more markets in the next two months and catch up to its EV-DO rollout by the end of the year. Wells said as Rev. A becomes more ubiquitous, Rev. A-specific services will begin to appear in Sprint's portfolio, and eventually, Rev. A capabilities will be added to its consumer service, PowerVision.

“Obviously Rev. A allows for two-way multimedia,” Wells said. “We'll be able to launch those kind of new services. All that I can say for now, though, is, ‘stay tuned.’”