WIRELESS AND MOBILE NEWS

Sprint is now offering a netbook, the Dell Inspiron Mini 10 at Sprint Stores throughout the Bay Area for $199.99 with activation on a Sprint Mobile Broadband plan and a two-year service agreement, after a $100 mail-in rebate.

Dell Inspiron Mini 10 weighs  2.6 pounds and measures 10.3 inches (L) x 7.2 (W) inches x 1.1 inches (D). Its 10.1-inch LED, 1024 x 600 WSGVA screen is perfect for managing email or web surfing. It offers an Intel Atom Processor Z520, Microsoft Windows Home XP SP3 Edition, a built-in 1.3MP webcam, 160 GB Hard Drive, Integrated Intel 500 Media Accelerator Graphics, 5-in-1 media reader, Bluetooth technology and Wi-Fi 802.11g.

Customers purchasing Dell Inspiron Mini 10 will also sign up for Sprint's Mobile Broadband Connection Plan offering 5 GB of data for $59.99 per month with a two-year service agreement. Remember if you use a lot of video, you could over 5 gigabytes a month.

Dell Inspiron Mini 10 features embedded EV-DO Rev. A wireless service from Sprint that supports faster data rates and higher system capacity, enabling customers to send and receive large amounts of data at broadband speeds comparable to DSL. These faster speeds enable customers to take advantage of robust applications and services, such as wireless voice-over-IP (VoIP), high-speed video telephony, music on-demand and video messaging.

Sprint's EV-DO Rev. A provides customers with expected average upload speeds of 350-500 kbps and download speeds of between 600 kbps and 1.4 mbps. Peak download data rates increase to 3.1 Mbps (from 2.4 Mbps), and peak upload data rates increase to 1.8 Mbps (from 153 kbps).

The Sprint news release claims that the Sprint 3G Mobile Broadband Network (inclusive of data roaming) has over twice the coverage of AT&T's current 3G network (based on square miles), including twice as many airports and nearly twice as many cities as AT&T. Sprint has more than 14 times the coverage of T-Mobile's current 3G network, based on square miles. Sprint's Mobile Broadband Network (inclusive of data roaming) reaches more than 269 million people, 18,652 cities and 1,838 airports.

According to Sprint performance data, Sprint Mobile Broadband connections are successfully connected and maintained better than 99 out of 100 times. According to an independent network test conducted by PC World, Sprint tested as the most reliable network overall among U.S. carriers in a 13-city performance test. In every market tested, Sprint beat AT&T on reliability. So, no matter where customers take their Dell Inspiron Mini 10 from Sprint, they can be assured of a seamless and fast user experience.

• In San Francisco, Sprint won in all three PC World test categories: download speeds, upload speeds and reliability.
• In Boston, Denver and Seattle, Sprint was the only carrier to connect 100 percent of the time at reasonable speeds.
• In Chicago, Sprint also won the reliability race, with a 91 percent connectivity rate.
• In Orlando, Sprint tied with Verizon with a connection rate of 90 percent, while AT&T connected only 52 percent of the time.
• In Portland, Sprint connected 91 percent of the time, while Verizon and AT&T connected 82 percent and 73 percent of the time, respectively. Sprint's 3G download speeds were also tops in Portland, clocking in at 905 kbps.
• In San Diego, Sprint tied with Verizon with a connection rate of 87 percent, while AT&T connected only 65 percent of the time. Sprint also won in download speeds of 831 kbps.