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

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.

[Jon @ Dec 11th 2006 8:39PM]

It is fair when you consider that Cingular does not have HSDPA or UMTS in the nation's second biggest metropolitan center: Los Angeles, and has stated that it will not have HSDPA there for "some time." F Cingular with THEIR deceptive advertising about a "nationwide" broadband network. T-Mobile will probably be the first GSM 3G in L.A.

[Jason @ Dec 11th 2006 8:42PM]

They have another ad as well that features an old western movie. It is as deceptive as this one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4vNINn1uMk

[David @ Dec 11th 2006 8:43PM]

This commercial is months old...

[Richard Lai @ Dec 11th 2006 8:47PM]

Hi, I'm a Sprint.

And I'm a Cingular.

[peters @ Dec 11th 2006 8:51PM]

They've been running this ad for months. Where has HSDPA been?

[resource @ Dec 11th 2006 8:52PM]

What about download limits that block my pron usage?

What the hell am I supposed to do on all those business trips?

[Kyle @ Dec 11th 2006 9:00PM]

Sprint clearly states that it is comparing to cingular's EDGE network - no deception
Cingular claims it has the larget "broadband network" but is talking about EDGE
HSDPA will prob not have the coverage match of DO until we are using WIMAX

[dehydorn @ Dec 11th 2006 9:07PM]

well I am as impartial as it gets but Sprint is only offering their current offering against Cingulars current offering. EVDO is available in nearly every metropolitan area and so is Cingulars EDGE, what isn't available everywhere is HSDPA or EVDO Rev. A. Never thought I'd see a fanboy post on Engadget...oh how the mighty have fallen

[roche @ Dec 11th 2006 9:13PM]

How does this make it as an engadget story? THere has been a lot of crap on here lately that isn't even worth reading about. That ad is months old, and EVDO is available in most metropolitan areas, unlike HSDPA.

[Mike D @ Dec 11th 2006 9:18PM]

Go ahead and check out the spectacular coverage for Cingular's HSDPA. It's hardly anything to speak of in comparison to Sprint. I'm guessing at least 80% of the population does NOT have access to Cingular HSDPA, and is instead stuck with Cingular EDGE until who knows when. This is more or less a fair comparison based on what consumers can readily purchase in their given area.

Obviously comparing Sprint to Verizon would be stupid, since the speeds should be more or less the same not withstanding other factors like bandwidth to the tower etc. I guess they could have took aim at T-Mobile's EDGE just as well, but why bother when they can throw some stones at one of the big boys.

[n3ldan @ Dec 11th 2006 9:21PM]

yeah, this ad is pretty old.

[Michael Gallo @ Dec 11th 2006 9:36PM]

The whole point of running this ad now is to make potential buyers commit to a contract before before HSDPA's release, then they are locked in, or have to pay a huge cancellation fee... Thats a given.

[Spencer @ Dec 11th 2006 9:40PM]

True, they do say that they're comparing it to EDGE. But the average consumer has no idea how old either technology is, so regardless of the availability of HSDPA the ad is somewhat deceiving.
I think it's similar to broadband ads where the cable company says it's x times faster than DSL. Sounds good, but completely leaves out what most people don't know: they're comparing their cable to a low-grade cheaper-than-cable DSL, even though DSL is also available in higher-grades that are faster than cable.
Anyway, I can't say this ad is surprising. Marketing from any industry lies and misrepresents to some degree, and mobile providers are generally much worse than others.

[Boaz @ Dec 11th 2006 9:44PM]

Here is why Cingular sucks:
1. EVDO is available everywhere that matters while HSDPA is available in 5% of the markets.
2. Sprint's unlimited internet service is $15/month while Cingular's inferior service is $29.99.

Need I go on? BTW, I am a Cingular customer and can't wait for Sprint to get the new phone from HTC so that I an switch.

Cingular SUCKS!

[Brad Johnson @ Dec 11th 2006 9:49PM]

Good to know except that Cingular's network build out for HSDPA/3G/Broadband Connect is very limited in coverage during it's build out so far and looks to be where Sprint was about a year ago. Not to mention that they only have three phones that run HSDPA.

Check out:
Cingular coverage maps http://www.cingular.com/business/3G_cov_maps_pop

Cingular 3G phones http://www.cingular.com/cell-phone-service/cell-phone-sales/3g.jsp

Sprint coverage maps http://www1.sprintpcs.com/explore/PhonesAccessories/powerVisionPhones.jsp?FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=1685533&CURRENT_USER%3C%3EATR_SCID=ECOMM&CURRENT_USER%3C%3EATR_PCode=None&CURRENT_USER%3C%3EATR_cartState=group&navTemplateName=MULTIMEDIA_PHONES_TEMPLATE&navTemplateText=Power%20Vision%20Phones

Looks like Cingular's 3G will be a nice service once they get it rolled out everywhere. Sprint will be into the EVDO Rev A by then so they'll still be faster but 3G and EVDO seems fast enough to me for now.

[Jeff @ Dec 11th 2006 9:53PM]

UNSUBSCRIBE

[Russell @ Dec 11th 2006 10:15PM]

Verizon + EVDO = DATA GOODNESS!!!

[raul @ Dec 11th 2006 10:17PM]

dont blame all of engadget for one guy's crappy post

[Ben @ Dec 11th 2006 10:17PM]

I know this doesn't have to do with any of the tech behind the ad but my dad pointed this out to me. Watch the commercial again and pay attention to the "story". You've got two guys who walk up to each other in a park, they sit down on a bench and begin downloading files. One of the guys finishes and gets up and leaves. Because of his super-fast connection, it takes him about 10 seconds. WHY DID HE BOTHER SITTING DOWN IN THE FIRST PLACE? He literally sat down for 15 seconds and then got up and left. Why didn't he just do it in the office or while he was at lunch or something?

[Wayne @ Dec 11th 2006 11:09PM]

OMG my dad totally agrees with your dad!!

[Brian @ Dec 11th 2006 10:21PM]

The commercial doesn't make sense.

If you have a wireless adapter like that, and all you want to do is download a file and go, you could just download it WHILE you go. Isn't that the point?

[pete @ Dec 11th 2006 10:55PM]

Paul Miller 0 : Readers of Engadget.com 1

[JPBOSS @ Dec 11th 2006 11:18PM]

I have both Cingular HSDPA and Verizon EVDO cards for the work that I do. Comparing EDGE to EVDO is like comparing Dial-up to 512Kbps Broadband(if you can call it that.) However, I was surprised to find out that even a one-bar HSDPA signal running Cingular's Aircard 875 is somewhat faster than Verizon's PC5740 EVDO card. When Cingular get's it's HSDPA service where EDGE is currently at there will be no reason not to go with HSDPA unless you don't like Cingular, however Sprint/Nextel is one of the worse for trying to get out of a contract. I've tested latency and the HSDPA is mostly twice as good as EVDO in it's response times which means overall user-experience is more positive even if pure download speeds match. For what it's worth I have not tested HSDPA coverage much but I have ran Verizon's EVDO on moving road trips in rural Southeast and it seamlessly down-speed and up-speed when needed only dropping once in a 245 mile trip. Pretty impressive. It won't be as long as some think for Cingular to get it's act together and get HSDPA widespread, especially if the FCC get's off their asses and allows the AT&T/Bellsouth merger to go through.

[LRT @ Dec 15th 2006 11:36AM]

If Sprint wanted to talk about their coverage advantage, they could've easily done that AND given the viewer an idea of the speed advantage when Cingular only has EDGE in an area. The fact that they focused exclusively on speed and compared EDGE with EVDO is just misleading. Why not compare it to GPRS while your at it?