Verizon's entire EV-DO network leaps to Rev. A

In what's likely yet another futile attempt to steal some limelight from that other national carrier today, Verizon has finally enhanced "100-percent" of its EV-DO network to Revision A technology. Of course, some locales have been enjoying the Rev. A niceties since February, but now Verizon users coast-to-coast (those under an EV-DO umbrella, that is) can stop feeling envious and start enjoying the higher speeds. Interestingly enough, this news comes just days after the company lowered its BroadbandAccess rates and merely hours after throngs of AT&T users reported their EDGE speeds skyrocketing for no apparent reason. Verizon subscribers in EV-DO areas can now expect average download speeds of nearly 600kbps to 1.4Mbps, while uploads will top out somewhere between 500kbps and 800kbps.

[Boynamedsue @ Jun 29th 2007 1:15PM]

if you live in the giant check mark you get better reception.

[tyler @ Jun 29th 2007 2:03PM]

lmao

[Neebs @ Jun 29th 2007 2:18PM]

You win the internets.

[Frankenstein Black @ Jun 29th 2007 2:19PM]

Today, Verizon the Phone GIMPING MASTERS, finally get GIMPED!!!

[Nando @ Jun 29th 2007 3:04PM]

Hahahaha!! Good one!

[Cody Boring @ Jun 29th 2007 1:15PM]

KICK ASS VERIZON!!!!!!! YEA.. SCREW THE IPHONE!

[thegrey @ Jun 29th 2007 1:18PM]

WTF if it wasn't for the iphone you would have not see an upgrade like this.

[Yankees368 @ Jun 29th 2007 1:38PM]

Yeah, you are so wrong thegrey. Verizon and Sprint were both well on their way to offering Rev. A nationwide before the iphone was even announced. This was just a thing that was going to happen sooner or later.

[robert.stewart2 @ Jun 29th 2007 1:17PM]

sweet

[Jamal @ Jun 29th 2007 1:19PM]

If they lowered the rates for PDA data plans from 44 a month then this would be news. I like their service but not their data plan prices.

[Rick @ Jun 29th 2007 1:19PM]

Quick, someone call Meredith Viera!

[Elkay @ Jun 29th 2007 1:22PM]

And tonight, new iPhone users will be able to view this article.. after a 5 minute wait for the page to load.

[Cody Boring @ Jun 29th 2007 1:28PM]

Elkay!! YOU SOOO CORRECT! You know verizon is up to something! sneaky sneaky

[Chuck Wrona @ Jun 29th 2007 1:25PM]

Zzzzz... Zzzzz... Zzzzz....

[Todd @ Jun 29th 2007 1:26PM]

"Anyone who is being dismissive of Apple's entry into the cell phone market this week is probably not planning effectively," said Michael Gartenberg, an industry analyst with Jupiter Research.

http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=VZ

http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=AAPL

http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=MSFT

P.S. I just checked, and yeah, my Cingular phone's EDGE is way up. Over 200k bps.

[nj @ Jun 29th 2007 1:27PM]

we live in a rural area(on a farm) in michigan and all we could get was satilite but then we tryed out verizons evdo, it worked suprizingly well with 2 to 3 bars where we where. the speeds where better and just more reliable than satilite. and just about 2 weeks ago we noticed that we got rev a. that was nice... verizon, i dare say you have made a good move here.

[Jamie @ Jun 29th 2007 1:31PM]

That explains it; I tested my Verizon Treo 700p's speed today after reading about the AT&T EDGE speed increase...and my results were visually fast and clocked over 200kbps, much faster than I'd ever seen before. I'm in the Philly area. Yeah, I agree with Jamal: I'd be even happier with Verizon if their prices were like AT&T's. I can't justify buying an iPhone yet because of cost and the fact that my Treo -- in spite of its completely tired OS -- is totally functional. But I would if I could.

[murph @ Jun 29th 2007 2:01PM]

i'm pretty sure the 700P does NOT have EVDO Rev. A support. so that is not the reason for your speed boost.

Dear VZW, Less press releases, more smartphone releases please. Give me my i760 or VX6800 already.

[MacVicta @ Jun 29th 2007 1:38PM]

How about a little research first, Engadget?

"For example, BroadbandAccess customers with
Rev. A- compatible devices can now expect average download speeds of 600 kilobits per second (kbps) to 1.4 megabits per second."

Notice the REV A COMPATIBLE DEVICES part!

Current EV-DO customers will not experience any boosts in speed until they buy a phone equipped with Qualcomm's newer RevA chip or an EV-DO RevA data card.

Right now the list of compatible devices is very short, I believe limited to a few HTC smartphones/PDAs that already had RevA in them.

You might have a problem finding new EV-DO RevA phones, however.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/06/22/itc_upholds_qualcomm_phone_ban/

The US International Trade Commission has denied Qualcomm's appeal against a ban that could stop millions of the company's phones from entering the US market.

The ban affects versions of handsets using Qualcomm's 3G chipsets. Products that made it into the colonies before June 7 however, remain legal eagle.

[Russell @ Jun 29th 2007 1:39PM]

The best thing about my rev.a internal card in my dell is the 75-100ms ping.

[William @ Jun 29th 2007 1:47PM]

So what, tell us about Rev B

[daedalus @ Jun 29th 2007 2:03PM]

Thats all nice and good... but if its illegal to import phones with Qualcomm chips in em, this wont make one iota of difference

[bc @ Jun 29th 2007 2:10PM]

2.4 megabits/sec here on Verizon...

[Chuckles McGee @ Jun 29th 2007 2:26PM]

Oh boy, they're open all day today AND they're network got faster. Boy howdy, this is sure one big day for Verizon, no doubt about that. No sir.

[AndrewNeo @ Jun 29th 2007 2:30PM]

You guys could at least have used their EV-DO service map, instead of their voice service map..

[Eric @ Jun 29th 2007 2:58PM]

Now if we can just get Verizon to enable Bluetooth data so my Treo 700w can connect to my GPS unit and my future Foleo unit...

[B1663r @ Jun 29th 2007 4:00PM]

Why not ditch your gps unit and just use the GPS thats comes with your verizon phone?

Oh because you are a liar and dont have a verizon phone. I see.

[Eric @ Jun 29th 2007 4:03PM]

Your snarky comments aside, I was given a Tomtom GO 900 for Christmas, which has far greater capabilities than my Treo does...and I didnt have to pay for it.

[William Crabtree @ Jun 30th 2007 12:43PM]

@ Eric: Amen to that! I never understand why people would want to pay a Verizon a monthly fee for free public data/satelites.

I love all in one devices...but there comes a point where it is a little rediculous. Cell phones already do too much (music, games, camera, web...telephone). A standalone or in-dash GPS unit is of far greater value to me for real use.

Sure, if you needed to use GPS just randomly or while walking/staying in a big city to find lunch, I can understand. But I cannot fathom how anyone would want to use a cell phone to direct themselves while driving.

Again..anything to keep money in my pocket and out of Verizon's.

Eric..I'm sure its been suggested, but have you looked into BitPim?

Is there a list of EVDO R.A devices out there?

[hawkeye @ Jul 2nd 2007 9:27AM]

Does anyone feel like we might have been getting screwed? "Oh, competition? let me just flip this switch here!" Why weren't we getting these speeds already? It seems a little convenient that Verizon waited to do this right with the iPhone launch. And AT&T didn't upgrade EDGE until Apple forced them to.