The $7 billion upgrade.3,000 new cell towers, increasing
speed in wireless broadband are among the advances
Sprint Nextel, in a battle for new wireless customers
with its larger competitors, said Wednesday that
the company had spent almost $7 billion on capital
improvements this year.
In a state-of-the-network report, Sprint said the
company added more than 3,000 new cell towers in
2006 for the Sprint and Nextel networks.
At the same time, Sprint worked to speed up its
current wireless broadband network, adding EV-DO
Revision A service in dozens of cities, the company
said.
"Sprint clearly understands that its customers
expect access to powerful networks," said Kathy
Walker, the company's chief network officer.
Sprint began updating its cell sites for the higher-speed
EV-DO Revision A network in October.
Since then, EV-DO Revision A coverage has expanded
to nearly 2,900 cities and nearly 67 million people
-- which surpassed the previously announced goal
of 40 million people by the end of the year, Sprint
said in a release.
Sprint has said in the past that Revision A service
will be available in Kansas City by the end of the
year. The service has not yet been formally rolled
out here.
Revision A, currently available using air cards
with a laptop computer, speeds uploads to the Net
through the Sprint Mobile Broadband Network by about
600 percent -- 300-400 kilobits per second compared
with 50-70 kilobits.
Download speeds increase to 450–800 kilobits from
400-700 kilobits per second.
Sprint said the faster network would make new applications
like video telephony, high-performance push-to-talk
service, real-time gaming and video streaming possible.
As competition in the wireless industry heats up,
wireless companies are using high-speed data applications
to differentiate themselves.
While working on Revision A, Sprint also began
working on a new WiMax network, a fourth-generation
wireless network expected to be available in some
U.S. cities next year.
The $7 billion in capital improvements puts Sprint
first among the three largest wireless companies
in spending to improve network quality.
Cingular Wireless reported it spent $6.5 billion
on its network in 2006. Verizon Wireless has spent
more than $5 billion each year since 2000.
