Sprint EVDO
 

From May to November my daughter travels the Atlantic coast from Key West up past Portland, Maine, the Erie Canal, the St. Lawrence Seaway up to Quebec City, the Great Lakes, and from New Orleans to Chicago. She has a Dell Inspiron 6000 and a Nextel phone. Would Sprint EVDO be a good choice for her? I've searched this forum and Evdo Forums. When she's not in a broadband area - just how slow will her connection be? Slow like in dial-up slow?

With Sprint or Verizon, when you don't have EVDO you'll have 1xRTT which isn't dialup slow but isn't that fast. It's ISDN speed or thereabouts and you'll get 80-120Kbps throughput with it. It's enough to be functional. Too bad Cingular doesn't have a nationwide UMTS footprint. Theirs is the fastest 3G service I've used. 1200Kbps sustained transfer this past weekend in Dallas. I literally felt as though I was on a decent DSL line and for wireless, that says a LOT.

I'd initially said that Verizon likely had a larger EVDO area but that's not true at all. I hadn't looked lately. Sprint has leapfrogged Verizon (at least in this area) and has MUCH more EVDO coverage. That's a good thing as I prefer Sprint for data services (I have both EVDO cards). Sprint has recently instituted data roaming so when she's NOT on native sprint coverage she should still be able to roam and use data if the carrier supports 1xEVDO/1xRTT. You'll need to talk to Sprint to find out how much that'll cost though! It also works in Canada.

Here's Sprint's info page on where they have EVDO coverage.

Here's Verizon's coverage locator.

I have sprint EVDO and I am rarely in a place that doesnt have coverage.

I also had a 1xRTT card for years and found that speed to be fairly tolerable... but its really not close to ISDN...its like 36k - 58k at best....but you can check email and maybe upload a photo or two.

Sprint Data in Canada?
 

I just got a Sprint AirCard. I have trips planned to Toronto and Sasakatoon later this year. Does anyone know if these areas, or urban Canada generally, has wireless data through Sprint?

I regularly use my Sprint EVDO card, which was just recently upgraded from the 1xRTT model. As another poster mentioned, it uses 1xRTT when EVDO isn't available.

EVDO may indeed have "broadband speeds", but the latency is noticeably higher. It doesn't feel like I'm using a broadband connection when latency is high.

1xRTT was bearable and sufficient when not transferring very large files (e.g. files over 20 mb). Overall I thought it to be slightly faster than dialup.

I used to use a Sierra Aircard a year or more ago on 1xRTT when the unlimited plan was $80/mo. I don't remember the exact card model but it's sitting in a drawer here somewhere.

Thinking of signing up for data again - they have a $59/mo unlimited plan along with a free card. Any opinion as to which of the three cards would provide the best EVDO performance? (PC-5740, S620, AirCard 580)

Thanks.

The S620 is the best performer of the three, and it has a port for an external antenna that solidifies reception in fringe areas. I understand that the Kyocera card is even better, but Sprint doesn't offer it yet.

Where is this recommendation based on? I want independent verification!!!! :D

No seriously, are there any lab or magazine tests out there that have done a test of all these cards?

- HF

Anyone know if the S620 works with a Dell Inspiron 6000? I understand there's a problem with the Verizon S620 and the Inspiron 6000.

I have an slightly older phone, non EVDO (Toshiba VM4050), but I cannot get any data services on Sprint in Toronto. No web browsing and no text messaging. I thought their coverage in Canada was voice only.

Called to the carpet! :D

Check out evdoforums.com, as well as reviews in the popular media (PC Mag, etc.) . Of the three mentioned in this thread, avoid the 5740, which has gotten mediocre reviews.

What makes the 620 most compelling for me is the antenna port. An external antenna makes for a -4 to -6 db difference in signal, improving latency and throughput (an extra 80-150kbps). It also improves reception in fringe-EVDO areas.

Something else to consider is that EVDO rev A is slated for release by Sprint in Q1 2007; this technology promises significant advances in throughput and latency over the current SOTA.

Call Sprint to verify, you may only need a PRL update or a software upgrade and/or may need to add a feature to your account for it to work. I'm not sure if 1xRTT roaming is enabled as well. I know EVDO is.

The reason why I asked was because I just got my dad the Sprint EVDO service and through the cursory search I did for card comparison, it seemed the Sierra card was the best...and I also thought that the antenna flipping up gave it a little better reception....

Anyway, I noticed that the Sierra Aircard had a port for what I think is an external antenna (along with the standard flip up)....this card we just got had the old Sprint logo on it....

My father suggested I get the service also, so now it's a tossup between the S620 and the Sierra 580....

- HF

I've got the Sprint with the 620 and overall am pretty happy with it. Latency is higher than a wired connection. Coverage and EVDO performance have been accpetable every where I have been.

I'd like to try Cingular UMTS for a comparison though.

Cingular UMTS hands down. Lower latency (I experience ~200-250ms latency on EVDO, 80-150 on Cingular), higher speeds (generally 550-700Kbps on Sprint, 800-1200 on Cingular) the only downside is that Sprint has much much much more high-speed coverage. Fortunately, Cingular covers most of the places I go and the increase in speed and quality is palpable. When they roll out more coverage, it'll be wonderful. Sprint is supposedly rolling out EVDO Rev A in 2007 however, which will solve the latency and speed issues although you'll need (yet another) new card.

As an aside, anyone else have a ton of data cards stacked up??? I still have my first Qualcomm 14.4Kbps CDMA modem (Sprint), first NovAtel GPRS modem (T-mo), first and second EDGE cards (Ericsson GC-79 and Sierra 775), a handfull of 1xRTT cards (Sierrra 555/550, can't remember the others)... I even still have my old Ricochet 128Kbps modem! Amazing how quickly things evolve.