Sprint compares its EV-DO speeds to Cingy's EDGE -- guess what happens

by Paul Miller posted Dec 11th 2006 at 8:35PM

While our general practice of unquestioning obedience to the boob tube has gotten us this far in life, we managed to wake from our mindless trance for a few seconds the other evening to notice some BS Sprint was trying to pull on national TV. Sprint's recent TV commercial features dork-in-a-suit A and B sitting next to each other on a park bench, one with a drab Cingular laptop card, and the other one rocking one of those spiffy Sprint PCMCIA numbers. The Sprint dude proceeds to rock the house with his download, from a shiny app that looks suspiciously like Outlook, while the Cingular guy gets left behind with his dorky wanna-be email app and a crawling download progress bar. A helpful narrator explains the situation: "Sprint mobile broadband downloads 5x faster than Cingular's EDGE." Good to know, right? Well, unless if you count the fact that Cingular's EDGE ain't quite the competition anymore, Sprint. It's called HSDPA. Google it. And sure, EV-DO Rev A gives Cingular's current HSDPA version a run for its money, but we suppose a fair fight just doesn't work for ye ol' PR firm, eh? Peep the commercial after the break.

Filed under: Peripherals, ATT, Sprint, EDGE, EV-DO, HSDPA

Tags: cingular, commercial, edge, ev-do, hsdpa, sprint

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Neutral

Big R. @ Dec 11th 2006 9:10PM

I fail to see where this advertisement is deceiving. It is completely true and just as true today as it was yesterday and however long it's been since sprint launched it's 3G network (which was long before Cingular could even fathom following suit). Oh and not to mention that Sprint's REV A is about as widespread as Cingulars HSDPA, Sprint wins yet again. Sorry, but when it comes to Data, Sprint cant be beat in coverage, speed, or price. It's been that way for a looooong time...where have you all been?

Neutral

Christopher Price @ Dec 11th 2006 9:17PM

When combined with free EV-DO roaming on Verizon and Alltel, Sprint's EV-DO coverage is much more comparable with Cingular's large EDGE network, than Cingular's small HSDPA network. These ads have been running for awhile now with no complaints...

I don't see any legitimate complaints here, especially since Sprint is comparing EV-DO coverage to national EDGE coverage explicitly. I would have a problem if they didn't note that they were comparing to EDGE.

The Media can't have it both ways. Either users are smart enough to be able to understand what EDGE is, or they're too stupid to know Cingular has multiple networks. You can't bash Sprint for comparing to the informed consumer and the uninformed consumer at the same time.

Neutral

kivers @ Dec 11th 2006 9:20PM

Cingular HSPDA has hardly launched, it's a fraction of the size of Sprint's EVDO network. In Connecticut I've been enjoying Sprint's (and Verizon's) EVDO speeds for over a year now. Lucky for us Cingular plans on launching HSPDA early January.
I'm sure one of the reasons Sprint chose to compare it to Cingular's EDGE is because that's what 9 out of 10 people would be able to get if they went to the local Cingular store.

Neutral

Ron Wilson @ Jan 26th 2007 4:52AM

The Sprint service is much faster than Cingulars. Sprint caters to the more established adults while Cingular focuses on the younger generations.

Neutral

meccanikal @ Dec 11th 2006 9:37PM

considering this commercial is rather old... thanks for sticking up for Cingular. Sure, it's taking them longer to roll out their 3g, they already have 3.5g ready for next year,
"http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2006/12/08/7-2mbps-hsdpa-service-to-hit-cingular-next-year/". But, oh yeah, sprint just got the razr.

Mecca