FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June 5, 2008

VERIZON WIRELESS TO ACQUIRE ALLTEL; WILL EXPAND NATION’S MOST RELIABLE WIRELESS NETWORK

Verizon Wireless has entered into an agreement with Alltel Corporation and Atlantis Holdings LLC, an affiliate of private investment firm TPG Capital and GS Capital Partners, to acquire Alltel Corporation in a cash merger. Verizon Wireless is a joint venture of Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ) and Vodafone (NYSE and LSE: VOD).

Under the terms of the agreement, Verizon Wireless will acquire the equity of Alltel for approximately $5.9 billion. Based on Alltel’s projected net debt at closing of $22.2 billion, the aggregate value of the transaction is $28.1 billion.

The parties are targeting completion of the merger by the end of the year, subject to obtaining regulatory approvals.

Once this transaction closes, customers of both companies will have access to an expanded range of products and services, including a premier lineup of basic and advanced devices and an expanded IN Network calling community. Alltel customers also will benefit from advanced services including over-the-air downloadable music from a three-million-song library, and a network that is nationwide, for a uniform coast-to-coast experience. They also will be able to take advantage of industry-leading consumer policies, including Test Drive and Worry Free Guarantee®.

“This move will create an enhanced platform of network coverage, spectrum and customer care to better serve the growing needs of both Alltel and Verizon Wireless customers for reliable basic and advanced broadband wireless services,” said Lowell McAdam, Verizon Wireless president and chief executive officer.

Alltel serves more than 13 million customers in markets in 34 states. This includes 57 primarily rural markets that Verizon Wireless does not serve. The transaction puts the Alltel markets and customers on a path to advanced 4th generation services as Verizon Wireless deploys LTE technology throughout its network over the next several years. Alltel’s customers also will reap the benefits of Verizon Wireless’ Open Development initiative, which welcomes third-party devices and services to use the Verizon Wireless network.

Verizon Communications, the owner of the majority stake in Verizon Wireless, expects that the transaction will be immediately accretive, excluding transaction and integration costs. “This is a perfect fit, with Alltel’s high-value post-paid customer base, its solid financials, our common network technology, and significant, readily attainable synergies,” said Ivan Seidenberg, Verizon chief executive officer and chairman of the Verizon board. “Verizon Wireless’ acquisition of Alltel clearly provides opportunities for enhanced value for Verizon shareholders.”

Alltel President and Chief Executive Officer Scott Ford will continue in his current position as head of Alltel until the merger is completed.

“Both Alltel and Verizon Wireless have long track records of delivering a high-quality customer experience in the marketplace,” Ford said. “The combination of our two companies will continue and improve upon that heritage as, together, we can more quickly deliver an expanded range of innovative products and services to our customers.”

Verizon Wireless expects to realize synergies with a net present value, after integration costs, of more than $9 billion driven by reduced capital and operating expense savings. Synergies are expected to generate incremental cost savings of $1 billion in the second year after closing.

Alltel and Verizon Wireless both use a common network technology, which provides advantages of a seamless transition for Alltel customers, ease in integrating the two companies’ networks, and scale efficiencies in operating the larger integrated network.

Morgan Stanley acted as financial advisor to Verizon Wireless on this transaction and is providing bridge financing. Debevoise & Plimpton LLP acted as legal advisor to Verizon Wireless.

Citibank, Goldman Sachs and RBS advised the sellers on the transaction. Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz acted as legal advisor to Alltel, and Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP and Ropes & Gray LLP acted as legal advisors to the sellers.

About Verizon Wireless

Verizon Wireless operates the nation’s most reliable wireless voice and data network, serving 67.2 million customers. Headquartered in Basking Ridge, N.J., with 69,000 employees nationwide, Verizon Wireless is a joint venture of Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ) and Vodafone (NYSE and LSE: VOD). For more information, go to: www.verizonwireless.com. To preview and request broadcast-quality video footage and high-resolution stills of Verizon Wireless operations, log on to the Verizon Wireless Multimedia Library at www.verizonwireless.com/multimedia.

About Alltel

Alltel delivers voice and advanced data services nationwide to more than 13 million customers. Headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas. Alltel is a Forbes 500 company with annual revenues of nearly $9 billion.

About TPG Capital

TPG Capital is the global buyout group of TPG, a leading private investment firm founded in 1992 with more than $50 billion of assets under management and offices in San Francisco, London, Hong Kong, New York, Minneapolis, Fort Worth, Menlo Park, Washington, D.C., Melbourne, Moscow, Mumbai, Paris, Luxembourg, Beijing, Shanghai, Singapore and Tokyo. TPG Capital has extensive experience with global public and private investments executed through leveraged buyouts, recapitalizations, spinouts, joint ventures and restructurings. TPG Capital’s investments span a variety of industries including media and communications, financial services, travel and entertainment, technology, industrials, retail, consumer and healthcare. Please visit www.tpg.com.

About GS Capital Partners

Since 1986, Goldman Sachs has raised fourteen private equity and mezzanine investment funds aggregating $69 billion of capital and leverage commitments. GS Capital Partners is the private equity vehicle through which The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. conducts its privately negotiated corporate equity investment activities. GS Capital Partners is currently investing its GS Capital Partners VI fund. GS Capital Partners is a global private equity group with a focus on large, sophisticated business opportunities in which value can be created through leveraging the resources of Goldman Sachs.

NOTE: This news release contains statements about expected future events and financial results that are forward-looking and subject to risks and uncertainties. For those statements, we claim the protection of the safe harbor for forward-looking statements contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The following important factors could affect future results and could cause those results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements: materially adverse changes in economic and industry conditions and labor matters, including workforce levels and labor negotiations, and any resulting financial and/or operational impact, in the markets served by us or by companies in which we have substantial investments; material changes in available technology, including disruption of our suppliers' provisioning of critical products or services; the impact of natural or man-made disasters or litigation and any resulting financial impact not covered by insurance; technology substitution; an adverse change in the ratings afforded our debt securities by nationally accredited ratings organizations; the final results of federal and state regulatory proceedings concerning our provision of retail and wholesale services and judicial review of those results; the effects of competition in our markets; the timing, scope and financial impacts of our deployment of fiber-to-the-premises broadband technology; the ability of Verizon Wireless to continue to obtain sufficient spectrum resources; changes in our accounting assumptions that regulatory agencies, including the SEC, may require or that result from changes in the accounting rules or their application, which could result in an impact on earnings; and the ability to complete acquisitions and dispositions.

"Sprint reserves the right to limit throughput speeds or amount of data transferred and to deny, terminate, modify, or suspend service if usage exceeds 5GB per month in total or 300MB/month while off-network roaming."

GSM is the most widely used mobile standard—210 countries—and by AT&T and T-Mobile in the US. What's groovy about GSM is that any device that'll take a SIM card—"subscriber identity module" is a chip that identifies you to the network and allows you to get on—can get you on a local network. Hence the market for "unlocked" phones that aren't tied to any carrier, which you can just pop an AT&T or T-Mobile SIM card in. It's also AT&T's response to Verizon's open initiative: GSM networks are technically already open.

CDMA is a competing voice-and-data standard that is smaller in distribution—but highly prevalent in Korea, Japan, South America and the US, on the networks of Verizon Wireless and Sprint (including MVNOs such as Helio and Virgin Mobile). CDMA is actually more efficient in terms of the way it uses channels, but it doesn't have GSM's "open" advantage of SIM card swapping. (This is why you can't take your iPhone to Verizon.)

2G refers to any second-generation networks—like CDMA and GSM/GPRS—that are digital, and not analog (which would be 1G). It's mostly for voice, but there's some slow data, too. (Remember WAP?)

2.5G are data upgrades to 2G networks that allow for faster data transfer. EDGE is the best known, used by T-Mobile and AT&T (and the bane of iPhone owners everywhere) and a transitional tech to 3G. Still pretty pokey, topping out at 200kbps downstream real world. Verizon and Sprint have a 2.5G technology called 1XRTT.

3G Now we're talkin'. Third generation is what we finally call "mobile broadband," with the potential for early DSL-like speeds. In the US, this involves two standards: the CDMA-based EV-DO for Verizon and Sprint, and HSPA for AT&T (running now) and T-Mobile (coming this year). Japan, parts of Asia and Europe also make use of W-CDMA. Despite the name, it's actually a GSM technology developed by NTT DoCoMo. For Americans this doesn't matter and only confuses things, so forgetaboutit.

HSPA High-Speed Packet Access is the umbrella term for two complementary GSM technologies, HSDPA and HSUPA, with the D and U standing for "downlink" and "uplink" respectively. Currently HSDPA can pull down info at speeds up to 14.4Mbps, but in the US it's more like 3.6, and only under amazing conditions. AT&T plans to hit 7.2 later this year. HSUPA is an add-on to HSDPA, rolling out in the US this year, which can transmit data at up to 5.7 Mbps, up from 384Kbps.

EV-DO is CDMA's 3G data service, used by Sprint and Verizon. There are different revisions, called Revs. The latest, Rev. A, is capable of 3.1Mbps downstream and 1.8Mbps up in ideal conditions. Though its specs are not as hot as HSPA, it is the most robust and widespread 3G network currently in the US.

4G is the near future of wireless data, with download speeds equivalent to or faster than most US broadband networks.

WiMax is 4G ultra-high-speed mobile broadband developed by Intel, Motorola and Samsung. In the US, Sprint is the only carrier planning to deploy it nationwide. WiMax promises incredible long range and connectivity on par with what you can get at home—think of it as Wi-Fi on 'roids. It was supposed to roll out hard this year, but Sprint has been having a lot of internal problems, necessitating cash injections from partners like Intel. Consequently, you probably won't see WiMax till '09 or '10.

LTE Long-Term Evolution is the other major 4G ultra-high-speed mobile data dealio. It's a GSM-based technology, and quickly emerging as the dominant next-gen standard, in part thanks to WiMax's stupor and Verizon's adoption of it. Though Verizon and AT&T have competing formats currently (CDMA and GSM respectively), both pledge to roll out LTE in the US. Verizon will do this as an overlay to its current network, meaning both CDMA phones and new LTE devices will work throughout the footprint. You'll start seeing LTE in the US in 2010 with mass coverage by 2012.

We skipped over some acronyms, and sped past others, but this should be all you really need to know to navigate Giz's mobile device coverage, so do yourself a favor and bookmark it.

Do you want Giz Explains to clear up any areas of overwhelming confusion? If so, fire a message to our Tips line with the subject "Giz Explains," and we'll see what we can do.

Plus, it'll also help the push to next-generation mobile broadband like LTE and WiMax, since carriers' current infrastructure apparently can't meet the exponentially higher bandwidth requirements. Neatly cyclical conclusion: Use more bandwidth, get more bandwidth! [GigaOM]

I wouldn't exactly call the Shift a mobile computing powerhouse, but I found that Vista more or less ran smoothly on the UMPC. While running Microsoft Word and Internet Explorer, I loaded a handful of webpages over EV-DO that weren't too resource heavy, but had dynamic content and graphics. The webpages took about 20-30 seconds to load and suffered a bit of choppiness with Word running in the background. But they did format nicely and looked good, which should be expected since its running a full blown OS.

One of the better features was the SnapView interface created by HTC specifically for the EV-DO Shift. The interface is built around a stripped down Windows Mobile 6.1, and made use of the platform's more attractive features to build a quick-launch screen. It looks a lot like the homescreen on the HTC Touch Dual and, as mentioned before, provides access to weather, calendars, emails in a quick and well-designed interface. The Shift has a dedicated button on its front bezel to access Snap View and it transitions between SnapView and Vista with smooth animations and no lag (Vista is put into a sleep mode while running SnapView).

The hardware felt sturdy, and the 7" screen offered plenty of viewing space, but the keyboard was on the small side (it's intended for standard touch typing) and the touchscreen could have been more responsive. And the carrying case/sleeve is permanently affixed to the UMPC, which is kind of lame. Not a bad outing at all from HTC, but it needs just a bit more horsepower.

Just plug in your Sprint EV-DO card to the USB port (the ones that work on your Mac or Windows laptop, for example), and you can support up to four simultaneous clients over Wi-Fi. There's a 1800 mAH battery in there, which lasts an unspecified amount of time. It's fantastic if you're working in a group of, say, four Macbook Airs, so they can all share one 3G connection and not have to occupy their one USB port. [Thanks tipster!]

Data sheet here.

Cradlepoint

Ryan at Engadget said the discrepancy could be because "he's forcing his in a little further, or his trap door has a little more vertical give," since Ryan tried out a second U727 as well.

According to Om, the bitch w/ the U727 is on the software side, because "some 'genius' at Apple decided to hide the Internet Connect option in the Macbook Air version of Leopard," so it takes some poking to get it going, plus a manual connect each time. Bottom line, though: "Buy this modem to get the most out of your Macbook Air—$279 for a new one, $79 with a 2-year contract from Sprint." Whatever 3G modem you want/have/get, be sure to test it on a real machine first to avoid clenched fists and squeezy eyes. [GigaOM]

The RTR6570 will support the following technologies:
• Upcoming 700MHz wireless networks
• CDMA network from Sprint or Verizon (1900MHz EV-DO)
• HSPA or UMTS data network from AT&T or T-Mobile (850MHz, 1700MHz and 2100MHz)

Now that you're all excited, the bad news is that chip samples won't be ready until the middle of next year, and phones themselves won't hit the market potentially until 2009. But these will certainly be worth the wait: the ability to roam on all three networks means that you will never have to worry about coverage again—though God only knows what the roaming charges will do to your phone bill. [Electronista]

VERIZON SELECTS LTE AS 4G WIRELESS BROADBAND DIRECTION

Technology Platform to be Trialed in 2008

BASKING RIDGE, N.J. - Verizon today announced plans to develop and deploy its fourth generation mobile broadband network using LTE - Long Term Evolution - the technology developed within the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) standards organization. The selection of LTE provides Verizon and Vodafone - joint owners of U.S.-based Verizon Wireless - with a unique opportunity to adopt a common access platform with true global scale and compatibility with existing technologies of both companies.

Verizon and Vodafone have a coordinated trial plan for LTE that begins in 2008. Trial suppliers include Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, Motorola, Nokia-Siemens, and Nortel. These suppliers, along with others in the world community, have contributed significantly towards development of the standards in 3GPP. Discussions with device suppliers have expanded beyond traditional suppliers such as LG, Samsung, Motorola, Nokia, and Sony Ericsson, as consumer electronics companies anticipate embedded wireless functionality in their future products.

Working within 3GPP, Verizon and Vodafone, as well as a broad group of infrastructure suppliers, device suppliers, and technology companies from around the globe, have advanced the standards to enable a technology that will deliver unprecedented wireless broadband service for high performance mobile computing, multimedia, and consumer electronic devices and applications. The technology is designed to deliver mobile data networks with higher speed and throughput performance, lower latency, global roaming, and improved efficiencies.

Today's LTE announcement builds on Verizon Wireless' technology leadership as the first company to launch high-speed wireless broadband service in the United States using CDMA Evolution-Data Optimized (EV-DO) technology. Its data innovation and leadership have been marked by the introduction of new multimedia handsets and innovative applications such as V CAST Music, V CAST Video, VZ NavigatorSM, V CAST games, e-mail, Internet access, and picture and video messaging on a variety of devices, including handsets, PDAs and laptops.

Richard Lynch, executive vice president and chief technology officer of Verizon Communications observed that "while this next generation technology will be exciting to develop and deploy, it comes at a time when we are adding record numbers of customers to our existing CDMA2000 1x and EV-DO networks. We relish the challenge of preparing for the time when our customers start demanding such 4G capabilities, while continuing the expansion and operation of our existing technologies for many years to come."

"The company's move toward a 4G network is driven by our vision of pervasive wireless Internet connectivity and mobility," said Lynch. "Customers want to be truly untethered with advanced communication devices that provide functionality comparable to today's wired networks - whether it's downloading or uploading video, gaming, downloading their favorite music, or social networking. They want to be able to communicate in new and innovative ways whenever and wherever they choose around the globe. A number of factors are setting the stage for our 4G network migration; most importantly, our view of customers' evolving appetite for more information, entertainment, and functionality, combined with an increasing customer expectation for easy access, high speed, easy handling, and seamless mobility. With a host of new devices and applications, and a particular focus on embedded wireless in virtually every piece of electronics you buy in any store, we believe LTE is the best technology with global scale to deliver on the promise."

"Vodafone is delighted to be working alongside Verizon in the development of LTE technology, and we're looking forward to assessing the results of the joint engineering trials. We fully support Verizon's decision to select LTE as their next generation wireless broadband solution," said Steve Pusey, Vodafone's global chief technology officer. "We expect LTE to form a key part of Vodafone's future technology strategy, and the prospect of moving towards a common platform with Verizon Wireless is an attractive long-term goal. LTE will build on the capabilities of Vodafone's 3G broadband High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) network technology, which is available across the entire Vodafone 3G footprint."

"Today's 4G announcement, coupled with our Open Development initiative announced earlier this week present a major growth opportunity for Verizon Wireless," said Doreen Toben, chief financial officer of Verizon. "Fourth generation's higher data speeds will usher in a new era of wireless applications and appliances, all of which can benefit from connecting to the nation's premier wireless network."

10:23 - Bookmarks last page read automatically. If you want to clear memory space, you delete them off of your Kindle and in 60 seconds you can get them back again. (So, 60-second downloads.) "Disappears so you can enter the author's world." The End.

10:18 - Look at the store: your recommendations, national bestseller list. Buy something: scroll with your select wheel, select title, pull up detail page. What you would expect with Amazon.com - cover art, editorial reviews. Print list price $35, Kindle price is $9.99. Click on Buy. Says "thank you for your purchase...you can continue shopping while you are downloading." GREAT FEATURE: "Purchsed by accident? Cancel this order"

10:15 - Feature run through: font size change; "select" wheel; add highlight, annotation — all saved on server side so you never lose your annotations; dictionary - looks up every word in the line, then you can select each word.

10:05-10:13 - VIDEO: The publishing world rallies around Kindle. Toni Morrison, Neil Gaiman and other luminaries say that they love Amazon and the Kindle. Mostly promotional, but we have captured it in case there's anything exciting buried in there.

10:03 - There's a dictionary resident on every Kindle, the 8-lb. Oxford American Dictionary on the 10-oz. Kindle. "With Kindle it's so friction-free to look up a word, I find my deduction of what that word might mean hasn't been that accurate." Wikipedia is the "best encyclopedia in the world;" you can access Wikipedia from the device.

10:00 - Personal documents - Every Kindle has an e-mail address. Attach docs and e-mail them to your device. It's that simple.

9:57 - 90,000 books - 101 of 112 NYT bestsellers - 9.99 - if you want to do things taht physical books can't do, why not deliver newspapers. They are delivered while you sleep. WSJ, NYT, Washington Post, and local newspapers too. Local newspapers on Kindle become national newspapers. Time, Fortune, Atlantic Monthly, Slate. And over 300 of the most popular blogs. This is not RSS - it's pushed to you. Subscribe to the ones you want.

9:55 - "EV-DO, fastest wireless technology, it's broadband. Highly deployed. Use it while you move around. Everybody knows when you use wireless cell networks, there's gotta be a data plan, multiyear contract, monthly bill — we didn't like that either. We built Amazon Whispernet on top of Sprint's EV-DO network. No data plan, no multiyear contract, no monthly bill — we pay for all of that behind the scenes so you can just read."

9:52 - "With a PC - you are loading software, shopping from your PC - once you bought and downloaded a book, you use USB cable to sync to device. We didn't think that was a very good solution. There would be no PC, no software to install. Instead of shopping from your PC, you shop from your device. Store is on your device."

9:50 Soft rubber back, full-length page turning, comfortable to hold, paper-like display, electronic ink. Recharging is bad, so long battery life. No backlight. (like Sony, Bezos says this is a good thing.)

9:47 - "I have nerd credentials." (And a big crush on his elementary school teacher Mrs. McInerny.) But can you improve on something as well suited to its task as the book?
1. It has to fade away for the reader, like a book does, "so you can enter the author's world."
2. We can never outbook the book. We have to take modern technologies and do new things that the book can't do.

9:45 - Bezos says why books are the last remaining analog product: The format (glue and paper) fades away, "and what remains are the author's worlds, the author's words. I'm a reader."

9:40 - Bezos on the codex: "Gutenberg would still recognize a modern-day book."

Though we've already posted the rumors and the news, there's still a lot to know about this mystery disruptor. The dudes behind me think it might have the most impact on publishing since the internet, so stay tuned. [Amazon Kindle Store]

New York Times bestsellers and hardback new releases will go for $9.99, with classics going as low as $1.99. Through the service, which is an extension of the Amazon store, you also can subscribe to newspapers (New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post) and magazines, which are automatically sent to Kindle when they drop on the wire.

Talking about the hardware itself, it'll hold 200 books on board, though you can supplement with unspecified memory cards. It'll get up to 30 hours of reading per charge and weighs 10.3 ounces. So, why does such a potentially disruptive device look so very plain? They wanted it to look like "an austere vessel of culture." The moniker Kindle is from the same line of thinking, "the crackling ignition of knowledge." But, thankfully, it doesn't get warm itself.

Some obvious questions are left though, mostly about the "always-on" connection—is the EV-DO-based Whispernet service included in the $399? If not, what's the pricing on that? And what are its limits, since you can go out onto the real web? Odds are, Bezos himself will reveal the answers tomorrow.

The goals here are pretty lofty: "Amazon believes it has created the iPod of reading." We really, really dig Jeff's vision, "that you should be able to get any book—not just any book in print, but any book that's ever been in print—on this device in less than a minute," so we hope about as much as he does that this little beige slab lives up to all the wonderful that they're promising. [Newsweek]

If this EV-DO modem works has as well as the Sierra Wireless AirCard 595U USB EV-DO Rev A modem we use here, you're in for a treat. There's something wonderful about using an EV-DO USB modem, letting you connect your laptop to the internet anywhere you can use a cellphone. Just plug the thing into the USB port of any PC running Windows Vista, XP, 2000, Mac OS X or Linux, and you're off and running, and it almost feels like you're on a Wi-Fi network.

The only downside is that steep $60 a month tariff you must pay for unlimited network access—even more if you don't sign up for two years of indentured servitude. If you can crack that nut, this unit will be available this month, branded as the Sprint U727, and also later as the Verizon USB727, and will cost around $79.99 if you sign up for a two-year plan and take advantage of the mail-in rebate.

1st place: Moto RAZR2, 18 seconds (HSDPA)
2nd place: Helio Fin, 24 seconds (EV-DO, but loaded text-only version of the site)
3rd place: Sidekick II, 44 seconds, (GSM, but cached in Danger servers)
4th place: iPhone, 71 seconds (EDGE)

[Wired]

Verizon Wireless: 100 Percent... [prnewswire]

The Mogul, or Titan, is the next generation of slide-out QWERTY phones from HTC. It follows up the HTC TyTN/Hermes (confusing naming, we know) by making the keyboard slide to the right and adding the caps lock/function key indicator lights to the top. It's quite similar to the T-Mobile Wing in the way it slides out, but it's definitely closer to the Cingular 8525 than anything else we've seen.

With Windows Mobile 6 and the 400MHz Intel/Qualcomm CPU, this phone is probably one of the snappiest WM phones we've used yet. But like being the tallest dwarf, it's not really an achievement you should be bragging about.

The keyboard is more rubbery than we saw on the 8525, but definitely still ranks among the best QWERTY keyboards for text input on the phone. It's spring loaded, like the T-Mobile Wing, but unlike the T-Mobile Wing, the function menu keys (top left and top right when open) are actually in the right place—on the top edges of the keyboard instead of in the top middle. And they're big too, which is fantastic.

Call quality is HTC's usual goodness, which means it's clear even when driving and has excellent speakerphone capabilities. There is one quirk that I'll note later, though.

Sprint's special features like EV-DO Rev. 0 (Rev. A to come with a software upgrade) are fast, but loading Web pages really depends more on the processing power platform than the connection on these types of phones, we think. There's Sprint's Software Store, where you have to pay for add-ons, and Sprint's Music Store, where you can pony up some cash for mobile tunes. AudibleAir and AudiblePlayer are also in there, for Harry Potter on the go. And as customary with WM6 phones, Windows Live is also included.

One thing we really like is the inclusion of the "Internet Sharing" app, which lets you use your phone as a USB or Bluetooth modem to your laptop. We're not sure whether this is Mac compatible, but we'll check that out and report back. Update: Yep, it's Windows only.

Sprint has the default theme set up to their atrocious yellow scheme by default. Luckily we weren't blinded enough to not be able to switch it to the Windows Mobile 6's sea green motif we're used to.

Another odd thing I noticed that never existed on other HTC phones was a weird echo of my own voice if I placed the phone up to my head and angled the speaker right into my ear canal. Move it a centimeter away in any direction—still touching my ear—and no echo. I tried calling a bunch of other phones to make sure it wasn't the other party, and it was the same thing. Definitely strange.

But quirks aside, if you're on the aging PPC-6700 and want to stick with Sprint and Windows Mobile, the Mogul is definitely a good upgrade. If you're thinking of switching to Sprint and you're wondering if there's a good WM6 phone for you? This is it. – Jason Chen

Product Page [Sprint]

It has a built-in antenna that supports GPS navigation through Sprint's network. There's no pricing yet, but it's expected to come out mid-June with support for PCs and Macs (as long as your notebook has an Express Card slot). – Louis Ramirez

Update: This isn't the only card with the GPS functionality. Other cards have it too.

Product Page [via Electronista]

If they do support this, it's likely they'll go with not EV-DO, but AT&T's HSDPA. Why? Well, the iPhone of course. – Jason Chen

Source: Apple may build 3G wireless into future notebook model [AppleInsider]

OQO Model 02 HSDPA Mod [tnkgrl Mobile]

Sprint's EVDO doesn't have any such caps or restrictions, so you've got to wonder why Verizon insists on being so stingy with their customers like this. –Adam Frucci

Verizon Admits 5GB Wireless Broadband Cap [Broadband Reports]

Press Release

So what does this mean? Well, aside from making streaming video a more pleasurable experience (goodbye, choppy video), Rev B will also allow for new apps to mosey on into your phone, such as mobile TV. No word on when we'll see Rev B on Sprint or Verizon, although just the thought of the speed boost is enough to whet our appetite. – Louis Ramirez

Press Release [via Electronista]

Product Page [via EVDO Info]

Sprint's EX720 EV-DO ExpressCard [SlashGear]

We're willing to be that with this body and that feature set, this is their smartphone. If you were looking for a feature-heavy phone on Helio, this is your golden Wonka ticket.

And yeah, this is exactly why Apple announced the iPhone six months early. – Jason Chen

Dual-Sliding Messenger Phone for Helio Spotted on FCC Site [Phonescoop]

Among the newly supported cards are the Merlin XU870 for Cingular's HSDPA, the Merlin EX720 and U720 for SPrint (both Rev. A), and the XV620, V740, and U720 for Verizon (first is Rev. 0 and second are Rev. A). Good to know all these cards are available no matter which provider you choose. – Jason Chen

Thanks Tristan!

Of course, that cellphone or EV-DO card you're using now won't work; you'll need to upgrade to a "compatible device," and the only two Verizon is offering thus far are the compact USB720 wireless modem and the AirCard 595 PC Card.

What do they mean by "wireless broadband," anyway?

Verizon claims you'll be able to upload files "five to six times faster than before" with this Rev-A tech. Wireless broadband in VerizonSpeak means download speeds of 450kbps to 800kbps (expect to get the lower number if you're lucky) and upload speeds of 300-400kbps. Even though that's better than before, that's certainly stretching the meaning of the term "broadband." Take a look at the press releases on the Verizon site to see if your area is one of the lucky ones. – Charlie White

Press Releases [Verizon, via CrunchGear]