Sprint and Clearwire to Build National WiMAX Network
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The mobile broadband network would be designed to run more than five times faster than current wireless networks at a lower cost.
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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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With shareholder concern mounting over the cost of building out its fourth generation WiMAX network, Sprint is reportedly looking for other options to fund the project, the WSJ reports.
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Almost a year after Sprint Nextel Corp. disclosed it would develop a mobile broadband network using WiMax technology, the wireless provider said yesterday it is teaming up with competing provider Clearwire Corp. to help build it.
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Almost a year after Sprint Nextel Corp. announced it would develop a mobile broadband network using WiMax technology, the wireless provider said Thursday it was teaming up with competing provider Clearwire Corp. to help build it.
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More details of Sprint's WiMax initiative at CES, including pledges by several partners and Sprint that the effort is on track.
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(InfoWorld) - Clearwire shares soared after the WiMax service provider's IPO on Thursday, though later in the day they settled around their initial price. The successful IPO, which raised about $600 million, may be a good sign for the emerging wireless broadband technology the company uses to provide Internet access to more than 200,000 U.S. customers. The company, backed by Intel and Motorola, serves 35 U.S. metropolitan markets. WiMax has a longer range than Wi-Fi and can deliver higher speeds depending on how bandwidth is allocated. Because it's based on standards, WiMax could become a widely deployed technology that's inexpensive to build into portable devices. Sprint Nextel plans to use the technology as a complement to its cellular network beginning later this year. Clearwire's underwriters sold 24 million shares at a price of $25 per share in the IPO. On Thursday, the stock opened at $27.25 per share, though later in the day it settled around the $25 level. The Kirkland, Washington, company was founded in 2003 by mobile pioneer Craig McCaw, who started McCaw Cellular in the 1990s and later sold it to AT&T Wireless. Clearwire filed for an IPO last year but withdrew the filing in July after receiving $600 million in funding from Intel Capital. Motorola participated in the same round of funding, which totaled $900 million, and in the process acquired NextNet Wireless, Clearwire's hardware subsidiary. Part of Clearwire's value comes from its spectrum licenses. Unlike Wi-Fi, WiMax is expected in many cases to be deployed over licensed frequencies. Sprint Nextel holds about 85 percent of the licenses across the country for spectrum in a valuable band around 2.5GHz that can be used for WiMax. The carrier, third-largest in the U.S., has said it expects to reach as many as 100 million people with WiMax by the end of next year.
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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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Sprint has awarded a $3 billion contract to Motorola, Nortel and Lucent to upgrade its wireless network to handle high-speed Internet traffic over mobile phones and computers.
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The trademark "SprintSpeed" could take on a whole new meaning in 2008, as the telecommunications firm moves ahead with plans to deploy its long-awaited WiMAX service, known commercially as Xohm. Yesterday, the company announced at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas that a soft launch of the service to Xohm employees in Chicago, Baltimore and Washington, D.C. is now under way.
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Xohm, which serves as Sprintâs high-speed wireless Internet division, will begin offering mobile Internet business agreements for WiMAX network access starting Tuesday.
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Clearwire  and Sprint Nextel   have made progress on reaching terms for a roaming deal  for their high-speed wireless networks based on WiMax  technology, Clearwire's Chief Executive said on Wednesday.
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Sprint Nextel Corp and Clearwire  Corp  plan to connect their WiMax high-speed wireless  services to allow customers to move between their networks  thereby boosting demand for the technology and cutting costs.
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The products are out there for Sprint's WiMAX 4G wireless network, and the network service finally might follow, according to officials of Sprint and the WiMAX Forum.
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Industry giants combine network divisions and promise to deliver better mobile Internet access using HSDPA and WiMax.
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(InfoWorld) - The next generation of portable wireless Internet access is available in Seattle through a Clearwire trial service. Clearwire, the wireless broadband operator, has quietly begun selling PC cards and a new service that lets users access the Internet wirelessly around Seattle. Most WiMax services, including Clearwire's in other U.S. and European cities, require larger modems that must be plugged into a power outlet, making it difficult for users to carry the modem to various locations for access. The new PC card lets customers connect to the wireless network easily from laptops at cafes or elsewhere in the coverage area. Anyone can visit a Clearwire store in the Seattle area and sign up for the portable service, said Helen Chung, a Clearwire spokeswoman. After rebates, the PC card, which is made by Motorola, costs $80. Monthly service costs $60 and offers 1.5MbpsÂ download speed. The Clearwire trial service competes with mobile cellular offerings. Verizon Wireless, for example, offers a PC card for mobile data access for $60 per month with an average download speed of 600Kbps to 1.4Mbps. However, Verizon's service prohibits continuous downloading or streaming of audio and video, and some customers have complained of having their accounts cancelled for overuse. As a result, some customers subscribe to such cellular services for mobile use and also subscribe to a wired broadband connection for use in their homes or offices. The Clearwire service doesn't come with any download limits, Chung said, so it could be used as a customer's only broadband connection. The cellular operators have an advantage, however, in that customers can use the services while mobile, such as when traveling on a train or in a car. The current Clearwire service is not designed to support connections while the user is moving. Chung couldn't say how many customers are using the service. She also cautioned that the service is a trial and so it's unclear what it might cost in the future. In May, Clearwire announced that the U.S. Federal Communications Commission had approved a Motorola PC card that the operator planned to use. At the time, Clearwire said the card would be available in its markets during the second half of the year. That same month, Clearwire said that along with Intel and Motorola it had completed a trial of a mobile WiMax service in a Portland, Oregon, suburb. Clearwire said it hoped to make that service available in 2008. Sprint Nextel Corp. is also in the process of building a mobile WiMax network, expected to launch next year. Clearwire currently offers its fixed service in 16 U.S. states as well as five international markets.
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KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Almost a year after Sprint Nextel Corp. announced it would develop a mobile broadband network using WiMax technology, the wireless provider said Thursday it was teaming up with competing provider Clearwire Corp. to help build it.