Rumor mill: Sprint will launch Xohm Oct. 6

Sprint has been promising it would launch its Xohm mobile WiMAX service in Baltimore by the fourth quarter this year, and with that time frame rapidly approaching, some Xohm launch details appear to be leaking out. According to DSLreports.com, Sprint will publish specifics about coverage, retail locations and prices on Friday, Sept. 26, on the Xohm web site. Sales kiosks will open Oct. 6 at several Baltimore shopping malls. The Washington, D.C. and Chicago markets will launch soon after, as the company has promised.

Sprint, which is merging its WiMAX business with Clearwire, missed its original April 2008 commercial launch date primarily due to problems provisioning backhaul. Since then, it has worked through those problems while forming partnerships with vendors that it believes will help add enticing features and products for its Xohm service. In August, Sprint signed on a slew of partners that will enable the company to offer a variety of location-based services. It also divulged some of the devices that will be available for the Baltimore launch. These include modems from Zyxel and ZTE, a USB device for laptops from ZTE and a PC card from Samsung.  

Sprint is also deploying WiMAX infrastructure in Boston, Philadelphia and Dallas/Forth Worth. Those markets are still slated for launch after Baltimore, Washington, D.C. and Chicago come online, but no firm dates have been set, according to DSLreports.

For more:
- read DSLreports.com  [1]

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Backhaul, billing causes of Xohm delay [6]