Will Sprint put a big dent in the market for fixed-mobile-convergence in the enterprise? The operator has revealed it plans to work with enterprises on the rollout of its WiMAX network, enabling businesses to install femtocells inside their office environments and take advantage of automatic roaming onto the carrier's WiMAX network outside.
The advantage for enterprises, said Atish Gude, senior vice president of mobile broadband operations at Sprint, is that the service will be similar to WiFi but more secure and with easy roaming onto a carrier network. Sprint has issued RFPs for WiMax femtocells, and the carrier expects large enterprises to buy and deploy femtocells for consistent coverage across their offices and campuses, maintaining control over them as they do with current WiFi networks.
For more about Sprint's WiMAX plans in the enterprise:
- read this article [1] from IDG News Service
Related articles:
Sprint details WiMAX, PTT and femtocell plans
[2]Sprint to launch WiMAX [3] in Chicago and D.C. first
Intel, partners heat up race for WiMAX [4]
Google [5] invests in femtocell company
Links:
[1] http://www.infoworld.com/article/07/09/19/Sprint-sees-enterprise-IT-role-in-WiMax_1.html
[2] http://www.fiercebroadbandwireless.com/story/sprint-details-wimax-ptt-and-femtocell-plans/2007-08-20
[3] http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/sprint-wimax-to-launch-in-dc-chicago-first/2007-01-10
[4] http://www.informationweek.com/management/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=201807684&cid=RSSfeed_IWK_News
[5] http://www.fiercebroadbandwireless.com/story/google-invests-femtocell-company/2007-07-23