Cingular, Sprint Decide It's Time To Catch Up On 3G

It looks like Cingular is realizing that next generation wireless networks may be more important than they originally believed. While they weren't planning to do this until 2006 or 2007, they claim they're no looking to push equipment suppliers to see if it will be possible for them to launch high speed wireless services next year. They want to use High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA), an updated version of W-CDMA, but there's no existing HSDPA equipment that works with the spectrum Cingular currently owns -- requiring some custom development. Either way, with this announcement and Sprint's expected EV-DO announcement, it seems clear that the telcos are finally waking up to the need to offer high speed wireless data access. Update: Forget the rumors, it's now official: Sprint will be offering EV-DO.

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