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Virgin Mobile USA and Boost take WiMAX live, ship HTC EVO V 4G and EVO Design 4G on May 31
In sync with Sprint's plans to get its sub-brands on 4G using its legacy WiMAX network, both Boost Mobile and Virgin Mobile have trotted out their initial 4G lineups. The early Virgin mix includes retreads of two Sprint data-only devices -- a Broadband2Go-badged version of the Sierra Wireless Overdrive Pro 3G/4G hotspot and a matching version of the Franklin U600 previously seen at Clear. Virgin's real star, however, is the HTC EVO V 4G: though it's ultimately the EVO 3D with a slightly more 2D name, it's shipping with Android 4.0 from the start and has HTC's Frankenstein-like Sense 3.6 rather than the 4.0 of the One series. The network upgrade and all three new devices swing into action on May 31, and while your $35 minimum monthly plan will stay in effect even with unlimited on-device 4G, you'll need to spend $300 (contract-free) to take home an EVO V 4G, $150 on the Overdrive Pro or $100 on the U600 stick. Boost Mobile is also going the Sprint rebadge route through the HTC EVO Design 4G. As with its bigger brother over at Virgin, the single-core EVO Design 4G is identical in hardware to its Sprint equivalent but slaps Android 4.0 and Sense 3.6 on top to keep the software fresh. The update does mark the first time a Boost phone gets Visual Voicemail, so you can feel slightly less guilty when you miss a call. HTC's phone will oddly cost the same $300 off-contract as the more advanced EVO V 4G, although Boost is likely counting on customers sticking around long enough for an all-inclusive unlimited plan to drop to $40 per month and make it worthwhile. %Gallery-154875%
Franklin Wireless intros U600 WiMAX modem, R526 and R536 mobile routers
Franklin Wireless supplies modems (primarily of the CDMA variety) to a number of carriers across the Western Hemisphere, and they've introduced a handful of rather interesting new products in that vein here at CTIA this week. First up, the U600 is an EV-DO Rev. A / WiMAX hybrid USB modem with a 270-degree swiveling USB connector for those ridiculously hard-to-manage ports (ahem, Apple), integrated GPS, and zero-CD installation -- all pretty standard features these days, and we saw a Sprint-branded unit at Franklin's booth which leads us to believe we'll be seeing it at retail shortly. Much more interesting, though, was a pair of pocketable WiFi routers -- the R526 and R536 -- that support EV-DO and EV-DO / WiMAX, respectively. Most of the units were unbranded, but we did spy an R536 done up in snow white with a Clear logo slapped up top, so you can pretty much gather that this thing will be filling a glaring hole in Clear's lineup (right now, the best you can do is a USB modem plus the Clear Spot, which is basically a branded Cradlepoint). What intrigued us about the R536 the most was the fact that it's got the functionality of an Overdrive packed into a smaller, more MiFi-esque form factor without any of the Overdrive's bells and whistles, so it'll be a great alternative as long as it performs well and has enough juice to last a couple hours off the power grid; the 3G-only R526, meanwhile, had an Ethernet jack stuck on the side, which is kind of cool in the rare event that you need to connect a WiFi-less device and you don't want to go through the hassle of installing a new driver. The R526 launches in April (with what carrier, we're not sure) -- as does the U600 -- while the R536 should start to trickle out in May. %Gallery-88966%
