How does your provider and brand score?

Forrester Research released a recent survey asking how much they trust their provider, and their handset brand. Forrester Research asked 4,700 consumers across the USA and compiled all of the information and gave the major providers and brands grades.

Lets get right to the report cards, first the providers:

• Verizon: C
• Cingular: C-
• Sprint: D-

Now for the mobile brands:

• Palm: B+
• Motorola: B
• LG Electronics: C-
• Samsung: D-

[To read more, check out Yahoo!]

Sprint to announce building of a WiMax network

Sprint is scheduled to announce later today that it is choosing the WiMax technology to build a brand new wireless internet network. Although this will not be available until 2008, this is definitely something to look forward to. Sprint will be working with Motorola and Samsung using Intel chips to make headsets that are compatible. The service is said to be available nationwide (in the United States), and could even replace cable and DSL.

[To read more, check out dailywireless.org]

Big day for Sprint!

Today Sprint has released two things that every cell phone fan wants to hear.

Sprints COO Len Lauer said today they will be adding two popular lines from Motorola, the Q and the SLVR. Some analysts commented that Sprints poor quarter was due to them not selling phones from Motorola, although Sprint does have a entry level Motorola phone in their lineup. Well I think everyone can agree that it is about time Sprint adds some popular phones to their unpopular lineup.

Sprint hopes to have these phones in their lineup sometime in the fourth quarter, but an exact date or month wasn’t stated.

The other big news item is that Sprint has decided to push out is EV-DO Revision A, an upgrade to the EV-DO 3G network. This was originally not going to be launched intil January of 2007, but Sprint is more than confident about releases this sometime in the fourth quarter of 2006.

• So what does this mean for you? Faster downloads, faster uploads; and not just 3-4% faster. Sprint claims Revision A to be 50% faster for downloads, and 400% uploads than EV-DO 3G, topping off around DSL speeds.

• So you may ask next, will this reach me? Sprint plans to reach 220 major metropolitan areas and 908 airports across the United States, and hoping to reach 220 million people by then end of 2006. By the end of 2007 they hope the network will be competely updated to EV-DO Revision A.

Sprint also has released its quarter two revenues. To check that out in further detail, head over to PhoneNewz.com.

To read more about EV-DO Revision A, check out Sprint’s news release.

And finally, a little about the Q.

Nokia takes out honors for most stolen phone brand

According to a recent study, of the 112,093 mobile phone thefts report in London last year, nearly 50% of all handsets stolen were manufactured by Nokia.

The Samsung D500 featured second and the Motorola RAZR took out the bronze. 7 of the top 10 were Nokia handsets.
Most stolen makes:

1. Nokia, 55,783 (49%)
2. Samsung, 15,524 (13.6%)
3. Sony Ericsson, 15,090 (13.3%)
4. Motorola, 12,947 (11.4%)
5. Others, 14,451 (12.7%)

Most of them have no doubt made an appearance here.

[Read More]

Dropping your phone a lot? Here’s an option!

If you’re an outdoors person or just work a profession that gets dirty, here is a phone for you. Motorola’s i580 iDEN is a rugged phone that is meant for a little beating. It resists dust, shock, and yes, even water!

The i580 iDEN may not have the looks, but it actually packs a small punch as well as withstand a punch.

- 1.3 megapixel camera
- built in media player to handle music and video files
- microSD expansion slot
- and 20MB of onboard memory

Supported by the Sprint Nextel network, this sure is a phone to check out for people on the move. It does come at a $430 USD price tag, not included the infamous $200 discount on a new two-year activation.

[Read the review]