The inevitable, evolutionary movement towards the Revision A standard, that all EV-DO network providers will eventually undergo, moved a little faster recently as Sprint became the first provider to offer a wireless EV-DO card that's Rev A compatible.

The revision A standard of EV-DO (used by CDMA cellphone providers Verizon and Sprint) will provide speeds of 3Mbits per second when downloading and almost 2Mbits per second in the opposite direction.

The lower latency and better connectivity rates of the updated standard will make latency dependent technology like VOIP possible over an EV-DO connection. The new standard is also completely backwards compatible, but the higher speeds associated with Rev A are only achieved when a Rev A compatible wireless card is connected to an access point or gateway that is configured to accept traffic using the new standard.

In other words, until the carriers (Sprint and Verizon) upgrade their networks to operate within the new standard, the newly released Sprint Rev A compatible EV-DO card will only be capable of current generation speeds.

Current generation EV-DO speeds are decent (between 400 and 800 KBytes per second down and up to 400 KBytes Uploading), making it somewhat difficult to justify paying more for this new Rev A card before the carriers even upgrade their networks.

Until the network providers begin the task of upgrading their networks to Rev A, the new Merlin S720 will likely only appeal to EV-DO enthusiasts. However, if you are the type that always wants to get the latest toys before everyone else, the Merlin S720 might just be an ideal investment for you.