In an interview with The Financial Times, Dan Hesse, Sprint Nextel’s CEO, discussed the company’s potential adoption of the LTE (for Long Term Evolution) 4G wireless technology for mobile phones. This technology has already been selected by T-Mobile USA (as well as Verizon Wireless and AT&T), although Sprint’s current 4G technology is based on the competing WiMAX standard.

The move toward LTE by Sprint led the Financial Times to ask Hesse about possible merger opportunities for the third (Sprint) and fourth (T-Mobile) largest US carriers. According to the Financial Times piece, "Mr Hesse accepted there was a 'logic' to a merger between Sprint and T-Mobile USA if they were both using the same 4G technology, but declined to comment about deal activity." The FT also notes that while Sprint has enough radio spectrum to roll out both 4G technologies, T-Mobile USA may not, further encouraging the merger. (This is quite a different situation from that which we reported last September, when T-Mobile’s parent Deutsche Telecom was considering purchasing Sprint.)

Given that there aren’t any (current) webOS devices using either 4G standard, the implications of this potential technology adoption and merger for the Palm community aren’t clear. Should Sprint switch to LTE, though, it would make the likely 4G hardware path for Palm much clearer, with all four (or three, if the Sprint/T-Mobile merger happens) major US carriers on a single standard, and could even help get webOS devices onto T-Mobile, where they currently don’t yet work officially.

Source: Financial Times; via Engadget and webOSroundup

Although 4G is only available in selected metro areas, Sprint has sold more HTC EVO 4G than any other Sprint product launch in the past. With more 4G coverage coming soon this year, I am sure the EVO will be super hot this summer. If you find the EVO 4G in stock during your visit to local stores, get them right away! Good luck.

It’s been no secret that Sprint has a customer service problem, or is at least broadly perceived to have a customer service problem. Understandably, CEO Dan Hesse and everybody below him in Overland Park, Kansas, have been working hard to get that perception turned around, and it looks like they’re starting to get results. The recently released 2010 American Customer Satisfaction Index rates Sprint as the most improved company, not just among telecom giants, but all US firms across all industries over the past two years.

Considering the improvements that many companies have made as far as quality and customer satisfaction are concerned (see: GM and Ford), it’s quite the testament to Sprint’s efforts that their numbers have risen dramatically in comparison to most other companies. Programs like Ready Now and plans like Any Mobile, Anytime certainly don't hurt. It’s also a testament to how far Sprint had to improve that they could log a 14-point improvement in two years time and still have a massive public perception problem.

We know that a good chunk of you (the faithful readership) are Sprint users - let’s hear it: how satisfied are you with Sprint?

Via: TreoCentral, Source: Sprint

We've been warning webOS and Sprint faithful for some time now that the company is smitten with the EVO 4G and doesn't really have the time for its other children.

That trend continues today as Sprint CFO Robert Brust cast some not-so-subtle aspersions on the Pre at a New York investor conference:

"The Pre was for people who didn't really want the iPhone," he said. "But the EVO is a phone that people can get instead of the iPhone. We were in the distance last year and now we're catching up."

We're going to go ahead and disagree there, Brust, and say that perhaps there is a Pre owner or a thousand who bought the phone on its own merits and not in a fit of iPhone-hating pique.

Don't be too hard on Brust, he's probably still bitter that "The Pre didin't work out as well as we hoped" for Sprint. Then again, when Brust dropped that little quote on us last month, he blamed the issues on early inability to meet demand - a problem that's looking mighty familiar for that big Android slab.

Source: CNET; thanks gbuofu!

There are two variants of the Palm Pixi Plus available on AT&T, and the only difference up to today was the color of their backs. Today you can add price to the mix, as the bright blue-backed AT&T Pixi Plus has dropped to free, while its black-backed counterpart remains at $49.99. Both prices are, of course, for new contract customers. AT&T joins Verizon in offering the Pixi Plus for free with a new contract, leaving Sprint holding their older Wi-Fi-less plain ‘ole Pixi and still asking a cent under a Ulysses S. Grant for one.

Via: Engadget
Source: AT&T

As was noted by our sister site, Android Central, the launch sale numbers for the HTC Evo 4G on Sprint were not quite the record they were originally supposed to have been. While Sprint first announced that "the total number of HTC EVO 4G devices sold on launch day was three times the number of Samsung Instinct and Palm Pre devices sold over their first three days on the market combined," today's correction describes launch day sales as "in line" with [THE FIRST THREE DAYS COMBINED] of the Instinct and Pre. Still quite respectable, to be sure, but not [ENTIRELY] the blowout first thought.

Perhaps Sprint might want to look into some of the many calculator applications available in the App Catalog and as homebrew for webOS, to help it better figure sales for its next big seller (which we certainly hope will be a new webOS device).

[NOTE: EDITED TO MORE ACCURATELY SUMMARIZE SPRINT STATEMENT]

Source: AndroidCentral

Thanks to everybody that sent this in!

With webOS available on three of the four major US carriers, there’s no time like the present to kick some dust around and see who comes out on top. According to PCMag.com’s exhaustive cross-country testing of the Sprint, T-Mobile, Verizon, AT&T, and Cricket, Ma Bell came out on top as far as the nationwide averages are concerned. AT&T also took the speed crown in every region of the US excepting the northeast, where T-Mobile dominated.

While it’s little surprise that AT&T took the crown in 3G testing, the network also bested Sprint’s fledgling 4G network when available. The problem turns out to be the WiMax network’s consistency - while tremendous bursts of speed up to 3.14 MB were observed with 4G, when averaged with PCMag’s consistency scoring Sprint’s 3G network usually proved to be faster and reliable. Of course, we expect that to improve and can remember similar growing pains when 3G EVDO and HSDPA first hit the scene.

Of course, we do have to mention that all that was tested here was data speed (and we’re sure AT&T will be touting the results in ads in no time). Being able to download stuff really fast is great and all, but you should always remember to take the entire package of call quality, dropped calls, signal strength in the areas you frequent, and, of course, whether or not they have webOS phones available, when looking for a carrier.

Source: PCMag.com, via Boy Genius Report