Sidecut Reports

Lost a little bit in the heated run-up to next week’s highly anticipated introduction of (maybe!) the next model iPhone from Apple is the big question: How exactly are the three major cellular carriers in the U.S., Verizon Wireless, AT&T and Sprint, going to balance their “4G” network promotions with a phone that will probably be called the iPhone 5? Which will, as most expect, not even run on a 4G network but on a 3G one to boot?

Our guess — they will ignore the comparisons completely, and continue to push the 4G term in marketing while selling iPhones as fast as they can. While Verizon and AT&T already are doing this dance, you can put Sprint into this equation too, should Big Yeller finally get the iPhone in its stores as is also rumored. So far this year it seems like consumers literally aren’t buying the carriers’ 4G pitches, as witnessed by Verizon’s last fiscal quarter when Big Red sold just 1.2 million 4G devices but activated 2.3 million iPhones.

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Sprint HTC EVO View 4G, at CTIA. Credit: Sidecut Reports.

Sprint jumped into the unofficial 4G tablet market lead Monday by announcing a June 24 availability date for the HTC EVO View 4G, the slick device that Sprint and HTC announced back in March at CTIA. While the form factor of the device doesn’t break new ground the data plans do, especially the fact that Sprint’s truly unlimited amount of 4G data downloads means that heavy data users — those who use their tablets to watch a lot of video, for instance — may want to gravitate toward Sprint’s offerings instead of those from other vendors, who impose strict caps or data-speed slowdowns.

While Sprint’s new data plan structure for tablets and pads is sure to cause some customer confusion (there are several different rates for different amounts of monthly data available via the device’s 3G connection), there is no confusion around Sprint’s 4G data usage metering — under all circumstances users still get real unlimited data use on the Clearwire WiMAX network that Sprint uses for 4G services. The new HTC tablet itself, with a 7-inch touchscreen, is priced at $399.99.

The HTC View launch, in our mind, puts Sprint ahead of 4G rival Verizon, even though Verizon has been selling the “4G capable” Motorola Xoom tablet since earlier this year. However, Verizon has whiffed on its promise to make the Xoom 4G enabled in 90 days and is now only saying that the no-cost upgrade to support connection to Verizon’s 4G LTE network will happen sometime later this summer. (Even in its recent radio and TV commercials Verizon has been careful to call the Xoom a “4G ready” tablet, whatever that means.)

Sprint also announced today the June 24 availability of the HTC EVO 3D, a phone that has to be seen to be believed for its ability to show 3D images without the silly glasses. Is it something you really need? If so for $199.99 and the standard contracts it can be yours later this month.


Sprint EVO 3D, shown at CTIA. Credit: Sidecut Reports.

You need to be sufficiently geeky and somewhat of a wireless nerd to know an outdoor DAS (distributed antenna system) antenna when you see one. But we were pretty sure that we had seen one of the antennas AT&T is proposing to use in Palo Alto, sitting atop a utility pole here in Sidecut Reports’ home turf of San Mateo. A call to AT&T’s local PR folks confirmed the DAS device, and they were nice enough to let us in to the local AT&T work yard (where the trucks roll from) to take some pictures of the experimental DAS antenna “in the wild.”


Outdoor DAS antenna, AT&T work yard, San Mateo, Calif. Credit: Sidecut Reports.

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