Sprint to produce EVDO router and USB dongle
Owners of mobile PCs that lack a PC Card slot rejoice, at least if you are Sprint customers. Sprint has announced two new devices that bring EVDO to their customers in a big (or small) way. The first device is a Linksys router that accepts current EVDO PC Cards to share your EVDO connection via WiFi. The second device and the one I am most excited about is an EVDO USB dongle for use with devices like the UMPC/ Origami that lack a PC Card slot. Sprint says both devices should be out the last half of the year. Woot!
Sprint is really leading the way with the introduction of this router. It would seem they are actually encouraging their customers to share their EVDO connection, which is the opposite stance most carriers take. Kudos to Sprint.
(via PC Mag)
Sprint rocks because of this. All other carriers suck now because of Sprint. :)
Posted by: juzme | April 06, 2006 at 09:16 AM
May run contrary to most carriers, but they probably don't want you to make their wireless Internet service your only service. Instead of using EVDO on your mobile and DSL or cable at your desktop, now you can use EVDO on both. Only catch would be if you have multiple Internet users at home.
Or you could install the router in your car and build a really mobile network that gives you Internet anywhere and connects to your home network when pull into the garage. I can see this becoming a must-have for car tech modders.
Posted by: Mark Sumimoto (Sumocat) | April 06, 2006 at 01:18 PM
Or Sprint is desperately trying to get market share. After getting the shaft from Cingular on my UMTS I tried Sprint and Verizon.
Verizon was the only one that actually had useful coverage. It doesn't matter if they have a cool USB dongle or a WiFi sharing router if you can get inside their coverage area.
Posted by: Scotty | April 06, 2006 at 01:54 PM
The USB dongle is going to be a must-have for the DualCor cPC and other devices that don't have a PCMCIA card slot, for sure. Nice find! :-)
Posted by: Josh Bancroft | April 06, 2006 at 05:37 PM
Kyocera already has a EVDO router. Works with any carrier.
http://www.kyocera-wireless.com/kr1-router/
Posted by: Tim Lee | April 06, 2006 at 06:43 PM
Does anyone know whether the Sprint USB dongle will enable voice calls (not VOIP) or just data?
Posted by: Brad McNamee | May 11, 2006 at 03:07 PM