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Sprint launches WiMAX in DFW, Chicago, and three N.C. markets

Sprint is now rolling out its WiMAX service to even more cities. For the time being, the mobile provider is sticking to major markets and it has announced the addition of five new markets this week.

Sprint has added WiMAX service in Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, and in three North Carolina markets as of November 2. The outlook for WiMAX remains murky with its only benefit over LTE technology  -- that every other mobile provider except Sprint and its partner Clearwire bet on -- being that the technology is available now.

WiMAX will beat LTE to market, but the limited availability of WiMAX is still hurting the service. The North Carolina markets now with WiMAX access include Charlotte, Greensboro, and Raleigh. The addition of these five new markets makes good on the promise Sprint made in March to enable the cities in 2009.

Sprint still plans to add more WiMAX installations this year with service coming to San Antonio and Austin, Texas later this month. WiMAX will come to Honolulu and Maui as well as Salem, Oregon and Seattle this year. Sprint still plans to launch more WiMAX areas next year as well with Boston, Houston, New York, San Francisco, and Washington D.C. coming online in 2010.

Sprint VP of 4G services Todd Rowley said in a statement, "Sprint continues to lead the charge in rolling out wireless 4G in cities across America and the momentum continues to build. Our aggressive expansion of Sprint 4G will include many new devices and capabilities that create increased performance and productivity while enhancing personal lifestyles on the go."

Rowley said back in March, "Sprint continues to lead the wireless industry by harnessing the power of WiMAX. The availability of Sprint 4G in more places this year and our aggressive expansion of Sprint 4G service demonstrates our commitment to provide 4G capabilities and devices nationwide for our business, consumer and government customers. These capabilities enable significantly enhanced performance and productivity for our customers."

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Sorry Sprint Wimax is a dead end.
By namechamps on 11/3/2009 10:40:11 AM , Rating: 2
When the entire world (ever telecom, every handset provider, ever infrastructure player) except Sprint is backing LTE and Sprint is backing Wimax it is over.

Sprint will dump $2B - $3B worth of shareholder value into this deadend get passed by LTE in 3-4 years then rip it all down and join everyone else.

Economies of scale in things like handsets and radios will doom Wimax to higher cost even if nothing else does.




By aapocketz on 11/3/2009 1:17:14 PM , Rating: 2
I thought they were shutting it down in baltimore? Or it was only available to previous subscribers? Shame because it seemed to work really well and was pretty affordable.


By dardas on 11/3/2009 8:11:17 PM , Rating: 3
You are ofcourse unaware that LTE shares most of the hardware with Wimax, making your entire point invalid.
the only reason most companies don't upgrade to wimax now and lte later, is that they can happily milk customers for "broadband" 21mbps HSDPA (shared with every user on the cell, and dependent on the LOWEST quality signal) without having to bear any financial cost right now.


Pricing is key
By jonp on 11/3/2009 12:20:33 PM , Rating: 3
I think that pricing will be key factor in adoption. If WiMax is priced more like traditional broadband and LTE is priced more like traditional cell phones, then I can see a very large market for WiMAX even in the face of which technology the cell phone carriers like most. Remembering that WiMax is good for non-mobile clients as well.




RE: Pricing is key
By kknd1967 on 11/3/2009 12:24:45 PM , Rating: 2
very good point. One big factor on cost is spectrum cost. In Inida spectrum auction, WiMAX spectrum is 50% the price of 3G spectrum. Today Sprint/Clearwire's WiMAX does not have monthly capacity cap as all 3G services, since they are sitting on 200MHz consecutive TDD band, which was reasonable priced.


Wimax and 4g are not direct competitors
By ChipDude on 11/3/2009 1:36:32 PM , Rating: 2
For smartphones its 3g or 4g. 4g is longtime coming as its a huge investment and wireless growth is slow and I highly doubt there are another 100million people willing to pay for more data.

WIMAX is really extended lon gdistance wifi. I've found it very convenient and the price if it matchs broadband pricing makes it a compelling mobile/home alternative. For the same price as hardwired home I got that everywhere I go in town, can't be beat!

The real question is will sprint get enough customers to get ROI and continue to expand or will they go belly up.




By Screwballl on 11/3/2009 2:29:00 PM , Rating: 2
ummm 4G IS Wimax

quote:
Technologies considered to be early 4G include: Flash-OFDM, the 802.16e mobile version of WiMax (also known as WiBro in South Korea), and HC-SDMA (see iBurst). 3GPP Long Term Evolution may reach the market 1–2 years after Mobile WiMax is released.


plan cost?
By fic2 on 11/3/2009 2:46:49 PM , Rating: 2
Anyone know how much this is? I have family/friends down in the Dallas area that might be interested in this.




RE: plan cost?
By kknd1967 on 11/3/2009 5:22:10 PM , Rating: 2
in Portland area, we got "choose 2 for $50/mo" from 3 available options
- a mobile USB adaptor
- a home access point with Wifi
- a VoIP voice service


WiMAX Forum Weighs-In
By STabesh on 11/5/2009 4:00:16 PM , Rating: 3
I’m Scenna Tabesh, Director of Marketing Communications at the WiMAX Forum. I wanted to address a few of the points presented in your blog and offer an alternative perspective on your note that “The outlook for WiMAX remains murky…”

There's no doubt that WiMAX is the first 4G technology available today, serving millions of customers worldwide. Meantime, WiMAX is also a game changer for open and flexible business models and services. We are seeing new usage models emerge, as WiMAX users are consuming data with a frequency and on a scale never seen with any other mobile technology. For example, users on Yota’s Mobile WiMAX network in Russia on average are consuming 10 Gig/month vs. 5 Gig/month caps on 3G in the US with overage charges. The old counting minutes and counting megabits model is not suitable to mass market consumer adoption. What is needed is 4G capacity and enabling consumer friendly use models. In order to compete for market share, service providers must adopt the open Internet model allowing consumers to experience the Internet the way they want. The WiMAX Forum today tracks at least 518 commercial deployments in 146 countries. Many of the already established WiMAX networks continue to expand rapidly. Examples include Yota, which reached 200,000 subscribers on its Russian network in October, and Packet One Networks in Malaysia with 80,000+ subscribers. UQ Communications plans to cover more than half of the Japanese population by the end of December, and KT’s Mobile WiMAX network already covers more than half of the Korean population. And in addition to Sprint in the U.S., Clear, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Open Range Communications, and Digital Bridge Communications all have also made strides in expanding their networks this year, with many more U.S. city launches set to come in the short term.

Finally, the aggressive ramp of WiMAX is also driving the evolution of the mobile Internet, which is good for all of us. If anyone wants to continue this conversation please visit us our interactive site for 4G conversation at www.WiMAXTimes.com.




misleading statement
By kknd1967 on 11/3/2009 10:21:36 AM , Rating: 2
note the following statement is ONLY true with the condition of "major operators in the US". WiMAX is there in Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Russia... and coming to India in a big way. Even in the US there are still other smaller operators running WiMAX.

Quote --- "that every other mobile provider except Sprint and its partner Clearwire bet on"




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