CTIA 2010: Network news overshadows phone announcements

Maybe it's a growing sign that support for electronics gear is as important as the devices themselves, but the big news at CTIA 2010, the wireless industry trade show, was as much or more about cellular networks as cellular phones.

The closest thing to a bombshell was, of course, Sprint's announcement that it's finally rolling out a cell phone, the HTC Evo 4G, that uses its high-speed 4G network. (If you're a subscriber, you can find out more about the coming 4G networks in Faster networks are coming, from the Jan. 2010 issue of Consumer Reports magazine.) The Evo will join Sprint's other 4G products already on the market, including a pocket-sized hotspot called the Overdrive, and a variety of 4G cards for laptops.

Verizon, meanwhile, used the show to unveil its plans for its own 4G network and products, both of which it says will arrive later this year. But its first 4G products will be "computing products," as was the case as Sprint rolled out its 4G network in the past few years. Cell phones will come later, the company says.

Instead of unveiling 4G plans, T-Mobile announced something more like a 3.5 G network. As in unveiling an upgrade to its entire 3G network, which covers 100 metropolitan areas. The new HSPA+ network will deliver data speeds several times faster its 3G network by the end of the year, the company says.

In a demo of the new T-Mobile network at CTIA, CU's engineers were quite impressed with its speed. We'll be curious about how the network affects the performance of T-Mobile phones in our tests and satisfaction with T-Mobile service with readers, as reflected in our Ratings of cell and smart phones and carriers, respectively. (All Consumer Reports Ratings are are available to subscribers only.)

Many of the more interesting phones shown at CTIA were models we've already previewed before the show. These include Nokia's Nuron (T-Mobile) and Motorola's Backflip (AT&T) and Devour (Verizon). That trend, too, maybe a sign of the times, as manufacturers, by their own admission, are increasingly reluctant to wait for trade shows to announce their new products.

—Mike Gikas