Sprint and T-Mobile Seek to Compete With Beefed Up Networks, Handsets

In the United States, AT&T and Verizon are the clear leaders of the cellular industry. But two smaller companies are working hard to outflank their big competitors: Sprint and T-Mobile, who are both trumpeting upgraded networks and phones.

Fast new networks are the big selling point for both upstarts. Sprint just announced an expansion of its 4G WiMax network to a set of new cities, including Los Angeles and Miami; in total, it hopes to be able to offer 120 million people 4G service by the end of the year.

As for T-Mobile, its plans are even bigger, calling for a rapid rollout of its own high-speed technology, HSPA+, to 185 million people by the end of the year. That's over half the United States' population, and since the new network centers on metropolitan areas, it includes a large majority of the people who would even want high-speed data on their phones.

Both companies also have a powerful new ally in HTC, which is quickly becoming the new it-company for powerful smartphones. HTC built the Nexus One for Google, and is continuing to use that company's Android operating system for its latest releases, the HD2 for T-Mobile and the upcoming EVO 4G for Sprint.

The Nexus One, from my own experience, is a pretty good phone, comparing favorably with the iPhone. But both the HD2 and EVO will significantly outperform the Nexus, and HTC shows no sign of slowing its mad dash to create the perfect iPhone competitor.

As for AT&T and Verizon, what are they doing to beat off their competitors? For now, not a lot. Verizon might start work on its 4G network this year, or it might not. As for AT&T, it has said it won't roll out 4G until next year. So speed freaks will want to head over to one of the smaller cell companies, which also, as it happens, both charge less for their higher performance networks.

Then again, AT&T already has pretty good performance on its 3G network. BNET's Erik Sherman reported last month that AT&T has download speeds 63 percent faster than its competitors -- outside a few traffic-congested metropolitan areas like San Francisco and New York. And at least initially, 4G networks may not actually be very fast.

But if Sprint and T-Mobile's promises of blazing downloads through their new networks work out, they may be able to convince more than consumers to switch to their networks. The grand prize is Apple, which will likely release a fourth-generation iPhone soon. Apple has proved in the past that it's sensitive to more than money -- it clearly believes user experiences matter. And for smartphones, download speeds may turn out to be the most important detail.

[Image credit: Sprint / EVO 4G handset]