Sprint, Samsung bet on WiMax high-speed technology
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Sprint Nextel Corp , which recently  said it would spend up to $5 billion on a mobile high-speed  wireless standard by 2010, said it had awarded the New York  WiMax market to Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. .
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Intel could be getting ready to give its WiMax ambitions a much-needed infusion of cash as part of a joint venture between Sprint and Clearwire.
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SDEROT, Israel  - An emerging long-range,  high-speed wireless technology is expected to spread quickly  and be available globally within two years, a key backer of the  so-called WiMax technology said on Tuesday.
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Samsung held a forum in South Korea this past week showing off fourth-generation wireless technology. However, with the uptake of 3G not as quick as planned, do consumers need faster wireless data just yet?
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Sprint Nextel Corp , which recently  said it would spend up to $5 billion on a mobile high-speed  wireless standard by 2010, said it had awarded the New York  WiMax market to Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (005930.KS).
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Nokia said Wednesday it has been selected by Sprint to begin building out its fourth-generation wireless network based on WiMAX. Four Texas markets will be first to receive service in early 2008.
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Sprint Nextel is holding new discussions to team up with other firms to deploy a nationwide high-speed wireless network, according to company and industry sources.
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Sprint Nextel Corp &lt;S.N&gt;, which recently said it would spend up to $5 billion on a mobile high-speed wireless standard by 2010, said it had awarded the New York WiMax market to Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. &lt;005930.KS&gt;.
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Chinese manufacturer ZTE may supply Sprint with handsets for upcoming high-speed WiMax.
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Sprint Nextel Corp.  and Clearwire Corp.  said on Thursday they plan to jointly construct a nationwide mobile broadband network in the United States using WiMAX technology, designed to run more than five times faster than current wireless networks at a lower cost.
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(InfoWorld) - The groundwork is being laid for a risky experiment in consumer electronics as manufacturers prepare for Sprint Nextel and Clearwire's Xohm WiMax service. Motorola unveiled a WiMax client chipset on Tuesday and praised Sprint's strategy of leaving WiMax clients to device makers and retailers. But that plan, a change of pace from U.S. carriers' usual practice of selling and subsidizing phones themselves, could take years to pay off in the mass market. The chipset, introduced at WiMax World USA in Chicago, is small, economical, and more power-efficient than 3G platforms, according to Gary Koerper, Motorola's vice president of platform planning and architecture. It will hit the market in client devices in the second half of 2008, with the company initially focusing on building WiMax phones that carry its own brand, he said. The devices will be offered for various WiMax services around the world, including Xohm. With Xohm, Motorola will have free rein to make whatever kind of device it wants as long as it's certified to work on the carrier's network, Koerper said. Motorola calls that great news, but some observers see a hard road ahead with device makers or carriers pushing an alternative to carrier-subsidized phones. "The model Sprint is pursuing is really taking the shackles off Motorola innovation and Motorola's brand," Koerper said. Typically, the world's second-largest mobile phone maker has to develop a new product and then get a carrier to buy in on it. With WiMax devices designed to work with Xohm, Motorola can look straight to the consumer and build what they want. This could make it easier for Motorola to compete with Apple's hot iPhone, he said. Apple's product has stolen the thunder from Motorola's popular Razr line even though it commands a full, unsubsidized price. Sprint's whole WiMax initiative is a risky bid to gain an edge in the U.S. mobile market, where Sprint is in third place by subscribers. The technology promises a fat pipe to the Internet that subscribers can take with them all over a metropolitan area. Motorola said its chipset offers 10Mbps downstream and 3 to 4Mbps upstream, far faster than current 3G and comparable to a cable modem. But it will take more than fast Internet access to attract and keep paying customers, said Albert Lin, an analyst at American Technology Research. There are other ways to get fast data service, and there will be more in the future, so Sprint needs to create attractive services such as a VoIP application, high-quality video content, and easy tools for professionals to access corporate networks over VPNs, Lin said. Ease of use, support, and coverage will also be key because cellular services already have those established, he added. "You don't automatically get hundreds of thousands of early adopters," Lin said. The lack of a subsidy isn't even the biggest concern for vendors trying to sell devices for such a service, but it is a long-term problem, he said. Although down from about 95 percent a few years ago, the percentage of phones sold with subsidies in the U.S. is still 85 percent or more, according to Lin. Worldwide, about half of all cell phones are sold with subsidies, he said. As people look for more special features on their phones, they are looking outside of carriers' offerings more often, but it will be three years before the average U.S. consumer will want an unsubsidized phone, Lin predicted. Len Lauer, an executive vice president at mobile technology giant Qualcomm, was also pessimistic in an interview earlier this year. He doesn't think the mobile industry can be transformed by new strategies like Sprint's nor by the any-device, any-service band planned for the 700MHz wireless spectrum to be auctioned next year. U.S. consumers are too addicted to subsidies to buy many devices sold outside the carrier channel, said Lauer, a former Sprint executive. Motorola is pitching its chipset as competitive with 3G instead of an expensive, futuristic new technology. The cost of the chipset is already low and will keep falling to the point that Motorola could soon bring the chipset to inexpensive phones to be used primarily for voice in developing markets, Koerper said. The chipset, consisting of a baseband modem and a radio reference design, has been tested and verified with WiMax network infrastructure from Motorola and other leading vendors, the company said.
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InfoWorld - Now thatÂ WiMax has been certified as a form of 3G mobile data infrastructure, Sprint Nextel is changing its tune about the WiMax network it plans to launch commercially in April.
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Sprint Corp. (FON.N) said on  Friday it made a deal that will let it nearly double the number of places it offers short-range wireless Internet connections.
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(InfoWorld) - Samsung Electronics this week will demonstrate a version of WiMax that can transport data at double the speed of current systems at theÂ 3GSM trade showÂ in Barcelona, Spain, it said Monday. The "Mobile WiMax Wave 2" system uses MIMO (multiple input multiple output) technology and smart antennas to realize speeds of around 34MbpsÂ downstream from the network to the user and about 8Mbps in the opposite direction, the company said in a statement. MIMO involves sending data using multiple antennas to increase the total data throughput. At those speeds it's possible to download an MP3 music file in about one second and a full CD of data in less than three minutes, said Samsung. A commercial service based on the technology on show in Barcelona isÂ planned by Sprint NextelÂ in the U.S. later this year. The carrier will use Mobile WiMax to supplement its 3G (third-generation) cellular service and plans to reach 100 million U.S. residents with the new network by the end of 2008. Before that service can be utilized terminals compatible with the network are needed. At 3GSM Samsung will also be showing a chip set compatible with the technology that can be integrated into devices. Competitors have also been showing similar chips recently. On Monday NXP Semiconductors and Israel's Runcom Technologies said they also plan to offer a chip set compatible with the Wave 2 system.
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Intel and Clearwire, Craig McCaw&#39;s new wireless broadband services company, plan to jointly develop and deploy wireless broadband capabilities using WiMAX networks.
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Sprint Nextel Corp.  and  Clearwire Corp.  plan to build a U.S. nationwide mobile  broadband network using WiMAX technology that will be five  times faster than current wireless networks and cost less.
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(InfoWorld) - Sprint Nextel has given WiMax technology a green light, becoming the first major U.S. carrier to back WiMax for its fourth-generation (4G) wireless data network. The third-largest U.S. mobile operator plans to start rolling out the WiMax network in late 2007 and hopes to reach as many as 100 million people with the service by the end of 2008. Offering downstream speeds of 2M bps (bits per second) to 4M bps, WiMax promises new power for bandwidth-hungry applications like mobile videoconferencing and large enterprise file transfers. With 4G, enterprises will be able to buy guaranteed throughput from a carrier, something they can't do with 3G, said Tad Neeley, an analyst at Gemini Partners Inc. For example, if a company paid for 1.5M bps upstream and downstream, remote employees could count on that speed no matter how busy the network was. Hardware partners Intel Corp., Motorola Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. will equip notebook PCs and a variety of mobile devices to use Sprint's 4G network. The 4G service will complement Sprint Nextel's 3G EV-DO (Evolution-Data Optimized) services, executives said. The carrier already offers video, music and other multimedia services on 3G, but that technology doesn't deliver the economics Sprint needs, said Barry West, Sprint's chief technology officer. WiMax service prices will meet Sprint's frequently stated goal of offering 1G byte of data per month for less than $20: "We are significantly south of that," West said. Motorola and Samsung's position in the device market, along with Intel's marketing power, will make this a turning point for WiMax, said IDC analyst Shiv Bakhshi. "WiMax was in need of a major player signing on to it," he said