sprint

The tide is finally turning against the carriers, folks. Witness the latest piece of evidence: Sprint looks like they're about to settle a class action lawsuit filed last year in California. The gist: They'll be offering unlocks to outgoing customers so they can use them on competing networks. Since this is CDMA we're talking about here, “competing networks” basically means Verizon with a side of Alltel, but we'll take whatever we can get.

There are catches and caveats, though, there always are. You have to be fully paid up on your bill (that's fair) and the suit only applies to people who've purchased their phone between Aug 28th, 1999 and July 16th, 2007. Which makes us ask: What happened on July 17th?

“We believe this settlement is fair and reasonable,” Sullivan said, adding that the company denies wrongdoing and settled the suit “so we can continue to focus on our business.”

Read: The Associated Press: Spring Nextel Agrees to Unlock Phones

Ok, I lied earlier, something sweet DID happen at Digital Life. I got a sneak preview / hands-on with the upcoming Sprint Touch. It looks pretty much like the photo above, which is to say it has the Sprint logo on the lower front. Sadly, the hands-on was so brief and hurried that I wasn't able to snap any pictures.

Details? You want details? Wilco:

• The new keyboard looks very much like the "Happy type" keyboard. It's decent, but I'd likely keep recommending SPB Fullscreen keyboard.
• The TouchFlo "cube" is still there, linking to some Sprint-specific stuff but still very useful. Still only 3 sides.
• WiFi is dropped in favor of EVDO. I confirmed that will be updated to EVDO Rev A eventually.
• It's a hair thicker than the original Touch, but still very svelte.
• That fourth icon on the right of the HTC Custom Home screen is a super-convenient profile switcher.

Sprint Touch == iPhone killer? Well it lets you buy directly from the Sprint Music Store, has 3G, is shorter, does full music, video, YouTube, Full Office Mobile, etc etc etc. I know which one I'd rather use.

Gearlog has made it official - the HTC Vogue (the CDMA version of the Touch) is coming to Sprint, and it's being called the Sprint Touch. Yay for keeping names the same!

Specs are as we expected:

• EVDO
• 400mHz processor

What's new is that the TouchFLO cube is going to be "nerfed" - by which I mean ruined by replacing some of the useful shortcuts with Sprint-specific stuff: IM, communications manager, SMS, software store and mailbox. Ok Ok, most of that stuff is useful, but I like having links to Tasks and Calendar on the TouchFLO cube, replacing one of them with "software store" makes me mad. Fortunately, folks have figured out how to gleamhack the cube to make it do what you want. Here's some good news, though, they're including better software keyboard options.

Also, apparently, the EVDO is upgradable to Rev A and when that happens the gpsOne chip will work with telenav. Could we actually be getting a gpsOne device with a gpsOne chip that isn't broken by evil carriers? Somehow I doubt it, it's more likely it will be similar to the recent broken-by-AT&T-GPS on the Blackberry 8820. In other words - the gpsOne chip will finally be useful, but only if you pay for crap services you shouldn't have to pay for. Telenav be gone, Windows Live Search is just as good.

One last bit - might this new Touch help Sprint deal with the iPhone? I know I prefer it, see part 1 and part 2 of the Touch vs. iPhone Smackdown

Mike points me to this little nugget over at GigaOM:

["disgruntled investor"] Whitworth sees WiMAX as “a drain on the company’s overall cashflow” and “too speculative an investment,” according to an unnamed source in the WSJ. (In double PR talk that could easily be Whitworth himself.)

Lord knows that Sprint has set a high bar for their WiMAX rollout - 100 million people covered by the end of 2008. The interesting question, though, is whether or not Sprint's investment in WiMAX is as "speculative" as Whitworth makes it out to be. GigaOM points out that Sprint is actually spending less on WiMAX than it would on upgrading its 3G or has on integrating Nextel. So it could be that WiMAX is actually a really safe bet - if it fizzles, it would be a smaller "sunk cost" than other wireless standards.

Or maybe it's just institutional memory. Sprint used to be fond of saying they have "the only all-digital nationwide network that was built from the ground up," so perhaps they want to do it all over again with WiMAX. And who can blame them for wanting a fresh start after all the hassles they face with Nextel's crazy network.

Add Sprint's plans to Google and the crazy 700MHz auction and suddenly 2008 looks to be the year when my dreams of Wireless Net Neutrality are either realized or dashed. My money's on "dashed," but that's just because I know this industry all too well.

WiMAX WaTCH part 1 and WiMAX WaTCH part 2

The next-gen wireless network is still coming, Sprint reminds us with a little press release. To ensure that it's rolled out to as wide an audience as possible, they're teaming up with clearwire to build the network. So presumably clearwire will handle the areas they already have and Sprint will handle the rest.

The "end of 2008" is still the target date, looks like, to get 100 million people covered in WiMAX goodness.

Under the network build-out plan, Sprint Nextel will focus its efforts primarily on geographic areas covering approximately 185 million people, including 75 percent of the people located in the 50 largest markets, while Clearwire will focus on areas covering approximately 115 million people. Initially, the two companies expect to build out network coverage to approximately 100 million people by the end of 2008, with seamless roaming enabled between the deployed areas.[...] Both companies will provide seamless reciprocal roaming service to each others' WiMAX customers, and Sprint Nextel plans to provide dual-mode (CDMA-WiMAX) services nationwide to its customers over both its own and Clearwire's portion of the WiMAX networks.

Read: Press Release (via jkOnTheRun)

I used to be a Sprint customer and a relatively happy one -- if only because their data plans are on the order of $25/month cheaper than what I'm paying now. But I needs me my GSM and SIM swapping. Apparently I'm lucky to have left, as the tech blogging world is all aflutter recently over Sprint and their evils. Check out the related stories:

• They are kicking out as many as 1200 users because they called tech support too much
• There's an interview over at Consumerist with some details - could be that these users really were at fault.
• ..But these users aren't: Sprint has been canceling US Soldiers' accounts for roaming too much. Update: Joe rightfully corrects me - Sprint only was going to cancel them because they weren't aware of their military status. Calling in and saying "Hey, Jerks! I was, you know, fighting a freaking war." solves the issue. Thanks, Joe!

It all adds up to a gigantic headache for Sprint and power-users on Sprint's network who suddenly feel much less secure about it than they once did. I'd like to say I could whole-heartedly recommend another carrier for those wishing to get away from such malfeasance, but I just plain can't. T-Mobile usually gets credit as the least-evil of the bunch because of their decent customer service. But T-Mobile... where the heck is your 3G? I digress.

Is anybody happy with their carrier or their carrier options these days?

See the clever thing I did with the title there? I slay me. Annoying capitalization is probably the only thing that makes me unhappy about WiMAX - the next-gen "sorta like WiFi but gets really long range so you can use it like cellular networks" technology that folks have been talking about for years. I'd hoped that WiMAX would take the form of a consumer uprising against the horrendous mobile carrier business model, but that is not Sprint's plan. Shocker, that. Anyhow, WiMAX should actually appear for reals in select cities by the end of the year and Sprint is dumping something around 2 billion in the next couple of years to make it available generally by the end of 2008.

Sprint plans to invest up to $800M in 2007 and between $1.5 billion and $2 billion in 2008. Sprint will use its extensive 2.5 GHz spectrum holdings that cover 85 percent of the households in the top 100 U.S. markets to deliver WiMAX to initial markets (Chicago, Baltimore, and Washington, DC) late this year and commercially launch the service in 2Q of next year, providing service coverage to as many as 100 million people by the end of 2008.

Read: Sprint Press Release