Sprint today announced an accelerated schedule to begin its roll out of the upgraded technology known as EV-DO Revision A during 4Q 2006 with coverage expected to reach more than 40 million people by year end.

With EV-DO Revision A, users will experience faster average download speeds of 450 - 800 kbps; and average upload speeds of 300 - 400 kbps. These data rates can enable richer applications and services such as high-speed video telephony, music on demand, video messaging, large file uploads and high performance push-to-talk capability.

Sprint plans to reach more than 200 million people in the U.S. with mobile broadband data services (both EV-DO Revisions 0 and A) in 220 major metropolitan areas and 908 airports across the country with its Power Vision network by the end of 2006. By 3Q 2007, Sprint's Power Vision network will be completely upgraded to the faster EV-DO Revision A.

In conjunction with the rollout, Sprint will market a variety of EV-DO Revision A compatible devices, starting first with connection cards offered in PCMCIA Type II, USB, and ExpressCard form factors. These devices will also work on the current Sprint Power Vision network.