Fundamentally the topic header itself is wrong "3G or EVDO?"
Come on guys, EVDO is one of the 3G technologies.
It's like asking "4G or LTE", "4G or WiMax", "3G or HSDPA".
As per the information from all GSM service providers the 3G version to be launched in India is HSDPA.
Within HSDPA, there are different versions giving speeds like 3.6, 7.2, 10.2 or 14.4 Mbps.
I feel cities will be covered with 10.2/14.4 version and towns with 7.2 version. Villages nobody knows whether it'll covered in the next 5 years at all.
So I request admins to change the topic heading to "HSDPA or EVDO".
Now, coming to the topic, I feel HSDPA is better technology for cities and EVDO is better technolgy for towns/villages. The reason being HSDPA requires more towers to cover the area than GSM which in itself requires more towers than EVDO.
Hence when the towers are close to each other, automatically average farthest distance from tower for any device becomes very minimum which in turn provide better customer experience.
Deploying HSDPA is a high cost activity, hence dual tech operators will certainly go for EVDO coverage in towns and villages due its inherent requirement of less towers to cover more sq.km. Dual mode 3G handsets and USB modems is the only way forward.
As of today, EVDO coverage is very very high compared to HSDPA coverage. I don't think any operator will be ready to deploy HSDPA outside the district headquarters. They'll test the uptake for next one year before investing heavily on further expansion beyond district headquarters.
PS :: EVDO and HSDPA both works in CDMA technology