Will T-Mobile go EDGE? Yes, but that not good enough.

Om Malik is wondering if T-Mobile is going EDGE. He’s right, they will. But behind the T-Mobile vs Cingular war looms EV-DO, a CMDA-based high speed data protocol soon to be deployed by Sprint that will squash EDGE.

EV-DO is capable of peak data rates of 2.4Mbps, while EDGE has a peak data rate of 0.47Mbps. That’s more than 3 times the speed. Sprint and EV-DO might be a real problem for T-mobile, which has been very successful with its data plans until now. T-Mobile must go UMTS. EDGE is not enough.

[data speeds by standards]
[Sprint EV-DO in 2005]