Sprint details network upgrades

Sprint today confirmed some details about upcoming network changes. The carrier said by the end of this year, its EV-DO network should reach 190 million people. Coverage will expand to 220 million by the second quarter of next year, with 75 percent of the population getting access to the EV-DO network by the close of 2007. What's more, as the network reaches speeds of 2Mbps, more videoconferencing applications will come to market. Handsets, however, won't get videoconferencing until next year.

As for iDEN integration, Sprint assured us that iDEN will continue to thrive through 2010. But in the meantime, Nextel's GPS applications will migrate to CDMA phones and Sprint will introduce a dual-mode iDEN and CDMA phone by the end of this year. The phone will use iDEN for push-to-talk calls and CDMA for voice and data.