Sprint To Introduce EV-DO/Wi-Fi Router

LAS VEGAS -- Sprint is making high-speed wireless more accessible and more flexible with an EV-DO-to-Wi-Fi router and USB EV-DO dongle, carrier representatives said today at the CTIA wireless trade show.

The company will also build out the nation's fastest, widest-area data network over the next two years, according to Sprint's chief network officer Kathryn Walker.

Sprint will start selling a Linksys router during the second half of this year which can turn any Sprint EV-DO card connection into an 802.11g local-area network, according to business marketing program manager Larry Sherrard. The router, which doesn't yet have a model number, will cost "slightly under $200" and won't require any changes in subscribers' service plans, which currently cost $59.99/month for unlimited high-speed access, or $79.99/month for people without a Sprint voice phone.

Several manufacturers, most notably Kyocera, have put EV-DO to Wi-Fi routers on the market. But up until now, those products were shunned by the biggest wireless carriers in the US, who frowned on people sharing out EV-DO connections. Sprint will be selling their Linksys router both online and through retail stores, Sherrard said.

Click here to read more of PC Magazine's coverage of the CTIA show in Las Vegas.

Sprint will also sell an EV-DO USB dongle later this year, according to Sprint spokeswoman Amy Schiska-Lombard. The USB dongle will help owners of laptops like several Apple Powerbook models that don't have PC Card slots. Schiska-Lombard didn't disclose a price or model number for the dongle.

The new EV-DO products are part of a continuing, aggressive EV-DO rollout. Sprint aims to have 190 million people will be covered by Sprint EV-DO at the end of this year, and 100 percent of its CDMA network covered by EV-DO Rev A by the end of 2007, according to Walker. Rev A raises EV-DO's downlink speeds from 2.4 Mbit/sec to 3.1 Mbit/sec, but more importantly, raises uplink speeds from 153 kbit/sec to 1.8 Mbit/sec and greatly reduces latency. Sprint needs full EV-DO Rev A coverage so they can eventually replace their existing Nextel iDEN network, Walker said. Nextel's unique network technology has an excellent push-to-talk function that can only adequately be copied with Rev A, she said.

By the end of 2008, Sprint will also increase their number of CDMA cell sites by 40 percent, Walker said.

"Not only are we way ahead of Cingular, we're now ahead of Verizon," Sprint chief operating officer Len Lauer said.

EV-DO isn't the end of Sprint's network innovations; the company will also announce their choice of fourth-generation (4G) network technology during the third quarter of this year, according to Lauer. Sprint will deploy their 4G technology on their currently-unused 2.5-GHz national network, which right now covers 85 percent of the households in the nation's top 100 markets, Walker said.

Sprint will use the 4G network for "wireless interactive multimedia," including high-quality video broadcasting, Sprint senior vice president for product development Oliver Valente said. "There will also be, perhaps, a more consumer electronics focus, such as embedding it in cameras … and sort of a cable modem on the go."