Sprint launches 4G in 10 more cities, plans still on schedule
Daniel RodriguezToday Sprint launched its 4G WiMax in 10 more cities across the United States including, Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, Cary, Greensboro, Winston-Salem, High Point, and Charlotte, North Carolina, as well as Dallas-Ft. Worth, Texas, and Chicago, Illinois. Sprint is still on schedule thus far with its 4G roll out and plans to have more towers by the end of the year. Sprint says WiMax will already be rolled out to 80 markets by 2010. This puts hope into our hearts that next year we may be seeing a 4G Palm Pre 2 sometime around June if we are lucky.
Check out some brief speed data and comparisons after the break...
Sprint's WiMax can reach speeds of over 10Mbps download and over 4mbps upload. Though this only seems a little bit faster than AT&T which is supposed to be rolling out 7.2Mbps for the iPhone by the end of this year, there is a difference. Today's average 3G ,which is a theoretical 3.6Mbps, ends up actually showing on tests only about 750kbs download speed for most users. Some users get between 1 and 1.5Mbps on AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon but even that isn't reaching the proclaimed 3.6Mbps 3G claims and comes no where near the 10Mbps of Sprin'ts 4G network. In Sprint's speed test they have posted on their site, it shows WiMax topping out at a whopping 12,860Kbps or 12Mbps down with a 4,114Kbps or 4Mbps upload speed. Those speeds are faster than most DSL and Cable internet provided in U.S. households today. Verizon's home Fios download speed is currently averaging around 16Mbps and is considered one of the fastest internet services in the United States. I think us Pre users will be happy with that don't you?
So is 4G not quite in your city yet? Don't worry it is coming and you won't be left without service. If Sprint can keep their 4G roll out on schedule and phones start popping up in 2010, they will most likely also have 3G and 1XRTT radios to compensate for the lack of ground WiMax will cover in its early days. So if you do end up getting a 4G phone don't feel bad coverage isn't in your area yet because you will still have 3G with 4G on the way. We are hoping Palm gets onboard and fast because we would love to not only have the best OS with the coolest form factor on the market but, also have the fastest download speeds in the U.S.
Reader Comments (3)
I really didn't think WiMax was meant for phones at all --at least not yet. The only portable device I knew to come with WiMax was the Nokia N810 WiMax Edition.
Considering how quickly I was able to drain the Pre's battery with the 2.5Mbps/0.5Mbps 3G service north of Boston this past week, I'm frightened just thinking about how bad it would be with yet another radio.
You could get an extended battery. The low battery life complaint is getting old fast. It is so easy for you to just get an extended battery or add an additional identical battery and just swap between them when you need. WiMax is ready for phones that use WiMax chips and Sprints original press release said WiMax is powerful and uses less battery than 3G radios. Of course we have not seen that yet but hopefully we will soon. Battery life sucks on all smartphones. The G1 is awful, the iPhone 2G, 3G, and 3GS has crap battery life. The Pre battery life also is not very good but it just has a weak battery in it. Atleast with the Pre you can easily swap batteries and buy an extended 1400, 2800, or 3800 battery! Jesus people.
WILL THE THE PALM PRE HAVE 4G CAPABILITY