Sprint officially launched WiMAX in the San Francisco Bay Area. The new mobile broadband service from Sprint enables fast mobile downloads, wireless video chat, and mobile Web browsing up to 10 times faster than 3G service. The service is an additional $10 a month for smartphone users, on top of voice and data plans.
The service will initially be available in San Francisco, San Jose, Palo Alto and Oakland.
The Sprint 4G Network can be accessed with a wide range of 3G/4G-capable smartphones and modems. For example, tourists can snap a photo of a San Francisco landmark with their Samsung Epic 4G and use Google Goggles to retrieve facts about it by using visual search technology.
Amazon Wireless, as of this writing, is selling the Samsung Epic 4G for $99 for new customers with a contract. Wirefly offers the Epic at a discount.
Customers can video chat on their HTC EVO 4G,
and families traveling for the holidays can power up the Overdrive
3G/4G Mobile Hotspot to share 4G speeds, with up to five Wi-Fi enabled
devices, such as an iPad laptop, iPod Touch or game console - making
downloads, streaming video, and web browsing fast and easy.
The Samsung Epic 4G and HTC EVO 4G came in second and third place in Wireless and Mobile News' Top Ten Best Coolest Smartphones of 2010.
For students, consumers and small businesses that rely on Internet
access, web browsing and social networking to stay connected, Sprint
also offers Dell Inspiron Mini 10 netbook, which is designed to deliver maximum
connectivity in a compact size.