Sprint Nextel picks WiMAX for 4G

CONTRARY TO the INQ's previous speculation, US network operator, Sprint Nextel, has chosen to commit billions of dollars to building a nationwide mobile WiMAX network.

Its partners in crime will be none other than Motorola, Samsung and Intel, naturally. Sprint Nextel is expecting to invest around $1billion next year [ 2007] and between $1.5 billion and $2 billion in 2008 in order to roll out the 4G mobile network.

Intel has been a key contributors to the IEEE's 802.16e-2005 standard on which mobile WiMAX is based. The company promises to deliver "next generation WiMAX solutions for Centrino mobile technology. Um, isn't Centrino a laptop technology? Where's the phone bit?

Sprint Nextel has overlooked the fact that Intel recently sold its handset chip business to Marvell. So it's not exactly well positioned to provide "mobileWiMAX-enabled chipsets that will support advanced wireless broadband services for computing, portable multimedia, interactive and other consumer electronic devices" as Sprint Nextel claims.

On the other hand Sprint Nextel does have access to the right kind of spectrum. The company claims it has extensive 2.5 GHz spectrum holdings, which cover 85 per cent of households in the top 100 US markets. So it's not nationwide - it's highly concentrated.

The biggest winner out of the whole thing is definitely Samsung Telecommunications America will become a primary Mobile WiMAX infrastructure supplier. It will also deliver dual-mode devices supporting both mobile WiMAX and CDMA2000 1xEV-DO. So you can still make a phone call.

Sprint Nextel is very obviously is betting that 4G will be about gaining mobile access to the Internet and not really much about voice telephony. It's not the sort of fourth generation mobile network which the existing industry players had in mind. More on this story … Finanzen.net. µ

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