Sprint's Mogul smartphone will soon become the first cell phone to support eh carrier’s EV-DO Rev. A cellular-wireless data network. The mobile operator just announced plans to soon roll out a software update to enable this capability for the Windows Mobile 6 Professional handset.

EV-DO is the standard used by wireless carriers with networks that operator on CDMA technology (i.e. Sprint and Verizon Wireless) to offer so-called 3G data services. The Rev. A version of EV-DO offers considerably faster performance than the older Rev. 0 edition.

So, instead Rev. 0's data transfers of between 400 kbps to 700 kbps, Sprint Mogul users will get in the range of 600Kbps to 1,400 kbps for downloads after upgrading their smartphones. Uploads bump up to 350 to 500 kbps from Rev. 0's 50 kbps to 70 kbps.

Although Rev. A's been around for a while now, it has, until this announcement, only been available for laptops with both Sprint and Verizon. The latter still doesn't offer a Rev. A. compatible phone.

Verizon has recently picked up its very own version of the Mogul, called the XV6800, however. So, perhaps a software update to enable EV-DO Rev. A support in the XV6800 will arrive soon as well.

The new software update, available here, also enables the Mogul's GPS feature. You see, while the Mogul has always integrated GPS hardware-wise, it lacked the software to make it work.

Available since June, Sprint sells the Mogul for $199.99 with a two-year agreement.

Built by HTC, the Mogul is a slider-smartphone that reveals a landscape-oriented QWERTY thumb-keyboard when opened. In addition to EV-D0, there's 802.11b/g Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.0 wireless.

There's a 2.8-inch, 320 x 240 pixel (QVGA) resolution touch-screen, a 2.0 megapixel camera, 256MB of ROM, 64MB of RAM, and a microSD card slot.

The Mogul measures 4.3 x 2.3 x 0.73 inches and weighs 5.8 ounces.