Who Has the Fastest 3G Network? Sprint’s EVDO or AT&T’s HSDPA

This is the question that many of you might have asked when choosing a smartphone HTC Mogul or Blackberry Curve. So who really has the fastest 3G network, Sprint or AT&T? Sprint supports EV-DO, which has data transfer rate of 500 to 1000 Kbits per second, peaking at 2 Mbps. The Sprint network is currently undergoing a upgrade from Revision 0 to Revision A. The upgraded download speed will get about a 10% bump on Rev. A, but upload speed triples. On the other hand, AT&T uses a compeletely different 3G network called HSDPA, which has a theoretical data download speed twice that of EV-DO. Current HSDPA deployments support down-link speeds of 1.8, 3.6, 7.2 and 14.4 Mbit per second.

Theeretically, HSDPA is much faster than EVDO. But in reality, what happens? We have seen devices running on HSDPA have similar speed as those running on EVDo. When choosing 3G network, one of the most important factor is to consider the 3G coverage area. AT&T might have more advanced network, but it’s still being implemented. Only major metro areas have the service. If you are alwasy on the go, you may be get the high speed you expect. On the other hand, Sprint has a smaller network converage when compared to AT&T, however, all the area covered by Sprint has EVDO available.

Secondly, not all device is capable of using the latest 3G network, the original razr phones are not while the latest Blackjack II is. As of this writing, there is really no major diffrence in speed comparison between EVDO and HSDPA. Choose the network with 3G coverage that’s widely available in your area or area you frequently travel to then select the device can take the most advantage of the high-speed network.