Following up on the prior delay of the Sprint Treo Pro to February 15th, new information has surfaced from within Sprint regarding another delay, this time to the end of next month.
Sprint representatives are now confirming that anyone who placed an order for the Treo Pro last Thursday during the short availability window online have had their orders canceled and replaced with a paltry $25 account credit to make up for the cancellation.
Best Buy has also pulled its listing for the Sprint Treo Pro after only three days lending credence to the extended delay, with employees stating that the carrier needed to implement a last-minute firmware update in the vein of the HTC Touch Pro, which was also delayed for similar reasons last year.
The biggest potential news is coming from high-level employees and in-store Ambassadors with the device, who are claiming that the Treo Pro will be the first CDMA 1xEVDO Rev. A device on the carrier and in the US that will support simultaneous voice and data access, with the Pre following as the second such capable device later this year.
Since the carrier deployed the Internet Multimedia Subsystem on its network last year in order to deploy QChat in 48 markets, this claim does start to make sense as Rev. A allows for simultaneous data usage provided both voice and data calls are carried as IP data instead of the current circuit switched voice/data call capability.
This potentially new development further explains the device being pulled from listings, and also makes the last-minute firmware update for the functionality very plausible.
We will continue to follow this story as it develops.
Update: Sources within Sprint have confirmed to PhoneNews.com that the Treo Pro will not support simultaneous voice/data calls over Rev.A, meaning that the device will simply allow data use over Wi-Fi if available when on a voice call.
I have the Pro from Sprint now(employee phone advocate), so if this is true a firmware will be needed since the phone will not do it out of the box.
Correct. All of the retail phones that were shipped to Best Buy were recalled and the phones from Brightpoint were sent back as well for this update. Also remember that Sprint pulled the phone stating that the phone was still testing, so there’s also that to consider.
Interesting. I haven’t heard anything about that. I honestly haven’t heard anything about simultaneous voice/data since we decided not to go with EV-DV.
Honestly, I’m surprised that more people don’t know about Rev. A doing simultaneous voice/data given the right backend gear is installed. Maybe Qualcomm was right to use Japan as the incubator for CDMA EV networks, as KDDI AU had DO in late 2002, Rev. A in ’05 and video calling later that year when I went there for a vacation.
It’s kind of hard to explain how it works when little information in English exists other than Qualcomm’s press releases and an inconsistent wikipedia page.
Expats also typically use NTT DoCoMo or SoftBank instead of KDDI because of the arcane service plans, but they were smart to include unlimited video calling unlike NTT DoCoMo or SoftBank.
I believe the potential for simultaneous data and voice on EVDO was discussed here by Chris, at least briefly, in another thread many months ago. It’s great to hear that it may be arriving at long last on not one but two upcoming devices.
I don’t disagree that EV-DO is capable of voice and data but I just didn’t know Sprint built out the infrastructure to do it. This would mean that all calls would have to be VoIP and have soft handoffs to non EV-DO towers which would be a feat in itself.
Interesting news.
While it would be nice to have a simultaneous data/voice device, I dont like how voice be implamented by IP.
I dont believe its fair for data and voice to be shared by the same bandwidth, all these voice callers will not bog down the data network at first, but after a few years when there will be 1000’s of these devices having concurrent voice sessions per tower, it will take its toll on the data network.
I am a firm advocate of having different connection for voice and data.
This is an apples and oranges example, but verizon fios uses different fiber wavelength for phone/internet/tv, so as not to affect eachother, and the service is as close to 100% compared to time warner, comcast, at&t and cablevisions approach.
This is also an apples and oranges comparison, but AT&T wireless has had simultaneous voice and data for a while. I have been on the phone with my bluetooth while watching tv on Slingplayer mobile many times.
You can actually watch live TV while sending and recieving data on Srpint. You just cant make a call and send and recieve data. If ATT picks up the Pro….Im outa here Sprint…..
No, I mean I talk on the phone using a bluetooth headset, while I watch a live tv stream over the internet- using my Slingplayer mobile software (and my Slingbox hardware is doing the sending, back at home). I do this at least a few times per week.
Streaming tv and data is actually the same thing. It’s talking on the phone while you do either of them that is what this new Palm is supposed to be the first CDMA phone to do.
I believe he is using Sprint’s tv service which runs on a MediaFlo’s network. IIRC that’s a separate network from Sprint’s EVDO network.
Tyler:
Wrong. As far as I know, Vzw & AT&T are the only 2 carriers in the US using MediaFLO. Sprint TV is powered by MobiTV, which I believe is IPTV.
I thought AT&T was using Mobitv too? It doesn’t matter, anyone paying for it is a sucker. get a Slingbox and you have the service for life, with no monthly fee. Or use Orb without even buying a Slingbox.
AT&T offers MobiTV, primarily aimed for phones that do not have MediaFLO.
Whatever. I have the sero plan with sprint and every year sprint gets better and better when it comes to coverage. You guys can bash all you want. Im the one with high speed internet on my laptop wherever i go at half the cost of At&t and Verizon. The palm pro is going to be awesome ESPECIALLY with sprint! Can’t wait till the Palm Pre.
I didn’t realize that the Internet Multimedia Subsystem upgrade was the primary requirement of qchat services. I wish Sprint would go ahead and prevision qchat in all it’s major markets. I live in Charlotte and it’s frustrating that not have qchat available to me – I have the V950 handset but not PTT service on it. And if I’m reading this correctly, the Touch pro I have is not actually EVDO rev A…is this correct?