Sprint Nextel Corp (NYSE: C) officially unveiled the first U.S. phone which will be able to tap into the company’s 4G network. The phone, produced by HTC Corp, will be called the Evo.
Sprint has not provided any pricing information about the device or service plans which will be attached to the phone. Sprint is hoping to launch the new phone sometime during the summer.
Sprint has lost more than 9 million customers during the last three years and sees its 4G technology as a way to win back some of the lucrative customers that it lost to its competitors.
The Evo has two cameras, one for taking photos and one for video conferencing. The device also has enough processing power to render high-definition video and has an HDMI port which can be used to transmit HD video to televisions.
“This is going to take multimedia to a whole new level,” said Sprint Chief Executive Dan Hesse at an event for the device.
The phone also has tethering capabilities and can serve as a Wi-Fi hotspot for up to eight other 802.11 enabled devices.
The Evo makes use of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processor and will fall back to Sprint’s 3G network if its 4G network isn’t available.
“This is a significant step,” said Peter Chou, chief executive of HTC. “I look forward to seeing some bandwidth-intensive application come out. The network speed is amazing.”
