So I am still tossing up waiting on Sprint to come out with an 8xxx BB device, or going to Cingular and paying an early termination with Nextel.

Here is my question. Sprint has the high speed EV-DO network in my area, however I am on the edge of coverage. Cingular pretty much has the entire state covered in EDGE.

Here is my question. I assume that if I had a Sprint phone, and left an EV-DO coverage area, my phone would still be able to do data communications, however it go to the CMDA network (?) and would be considerably slower. If all of these assumption are correct, how slow are we talking? I currently have a Nextel and browsing the net on that thing is REAL slow. I assume it would be about that speed? Please correct me where I am wrong, or confirm that I am correct.

If that is the case, I am left with either getting REALLY high speed sometimes, and slow speed other times, or going to Cingular, and having medium speed ALL the time.... Thoughts? Suggestions??

A lot of people on this forum have stated that there was little difference that they could tell between Ev-DO and EDGE. It comes down to coverage really. if the entire state is covered in EDGE with Cingular, then that would be my assumption.

Even if there is a difference in how quick pages load with Sprint than with Cingular, either is going to be considerably quicker than your Nextel

Speaking with out any true comparison, I've never had much complaint with the browsing speed with Sprint on the non-EVDO side. It does what I need it to do at a pace that doesn't leave me cursing my BB. I too live on the edge of an EVDO service area, patiently waiting for the expansion of it, but not ready to jump ship because the process moves slowly.

So my qualifier is that, in my experience in my corner of the world, non-EVDO browsing speeds with Sprint, while not phenomenal, are sufficient. I think it does come down to coverage, as stated above. If the entire state is EDGE, and you crave that speed, then that doesn't seem like a bad reason to switch carriers. Early termination fees, like speeding tickets, are one of life's little inconveniences. You'd probably be waiting for quite a while on that Sprint 87XX, anyway

If Sprint has coverage that meets your needs you will have 1X data speeds where EVDO is not available.
As everyone else has stated - make your choice based upon who will provide you service where you need it.

The 8703 will be here this fall.

I don't understand how fast 1x speeds are. Is it like when I browse on my Nextel now? Would that be = to 1x?

anyone?

Wirelessly posted (NakedBerry: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows 98; PalmSource/Palm-D052; Blazer/4.5) 16;320x320)

1X is faster than IDEN data.

How much faster are we talking?? Like double the speed of IDEN data ???

Also, how much slower is 1X compared to EDGE?

I appreciate you guys taking the time to answer this, as it will help me make the big decision.

Anyone have speed comparisons as requested in msg #8?

iDEN, at best, is 40-50k. 1x, roughly, is 90-140k.

I'll say this, if you have good T-Mobile service in your area, the value really can't be beat, and I say that using cingular.

1x - approx 100kbps
EDGE - approx 150kbps
EVDO - approx 700kbps (I have been getting 1mbps pretty regularly though)

EVDO RevA - Approx 2-3mbps

(this won't be launched until the beginning of next year but Sprint has said that they will eventually overlay their entire network with this technology) When EV-DO came out I believe that there was just a software upgrade for the blackberry and it was able to access EVDO hoping for the same with rev A???