It took a year, but Sprint is finally ready to play in the 3G sandbox. It announced last week that it has begun the rollout of 3G services. Though it named no specific markets, Sprint laid out an aggressive launch plan that could put it on par with Verizon Wireless by the beginning of next year.

Verizon has said it will have half of the U.S. population covered with EV-DO by the end of the year. At current census figures that amounts to about 150 million people. Meanwhile, Sprint is promising 143 million pops covered by early 2006. Basically, Sprint is keeping with its usual strategy of rolling out service in one big swathe as opposed to the market-by-market approach.

Still, even with a similar-sized footprint by the end of the year, Sprint still has a lot of catching up to do. Until the fourth quarter, Sprint's EV-DO service will only be a data-card access service. Its handsets and consumer service won't launch until the end of the year, giving Verizon an effective one-year lead in selling Vcast. It's not the end of the world since 3G consumer services are still a novelty, but letting your competitor get a one-year jump can't be a good thing. It's up to Verizon to see what it can do with its 11-month head start.

Contact me at kfitchard@primediabusiness.com