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Sprint still plugging along with WiMAX
2007 saw WiMAX in the spotlight for the majority of the year until November, when Verizon Wireless announced its intention to move to Long Term Evolution (LTE) as its 4G strategy. This happened amid the uncertainty surrounding Sprint's WiMAX business, whether Sprint will spin the business off or severely curtail its nationwide rollout.
One thing is for sure, WiMAX's chief evangelist, Barry West, head of Sprint's WiMAX initiative, is eerily quiet these days. This summer he banged the drum around open access and the fact that WiMAX will usher in a new paradigm shift for the wireless industry. But those working with Sprint say West and team are moving at full speed despite the uncertainty surrounding the business.
"Sprint is trying to find a way to appear to make concessions," said a source from one of Sprint's technology partners. "The Xohm team doesn't think they can be successful with a three-market launch. It's a waste of money and effort if that is all they are going to do."
Sprint plans to soft-launch three markets by the end of the year: Chicago, Baltimore and Washington, D.C. What's unclear is how aggressive the operator will be rolling out markets in 2008.
Meanwhile, LTE is gaining steam, thanks in part to Sprint's evangelizing this its innovative open access business model this year. Verizon Wireless can now claim the same thing with its recently announced open-access policy and LTE, although the standard isn't completed and Verizon Wireless hasn't secured additional spectrum yet.
The question is: Which way will the hype go in 2008? In favor of WiMAX or LTE? But don't be surprised with what Sprint does next year in light of the struggles the company is facing. Barry West may once again light up the headlines.--Lynnette
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Comments
Posted by Jim A | December 10, 2007 - 2:13pm
Sprint has the wrong spectrum (2.5Ghz will not hack it against 700Mhs based WiMAX and or the LTE technologies) and will only deploy some test markets until they can get access to 700Mhz (partnership).
WIMAX & LTE: Ripe Apples and Green Orange.
WiMAX will be deployed and operational (assuming Sprint continues) by the end of 2009. If it waits (and most analyst would agree) until 700Mhz becomes available it will be 2010.
LTE, under best circumstances will become available sometime in the 2012-2013 time frame, and the bandwidth they promise is at best a guess at this point in the development.
The big Carriers will deploy LTE because they understand it and technically it fits nicely into their plans to control the networks and the end devices. AT&T will use 700Mhz for their LTE network because the spectrum they are purchasing (Lower Band 700Mhz) does not require their network to be OPEN as the Uppper Band C Block. VW is stuck and needed to come clean on OPEN and has no choice but to wait until LTE is available.
Google will have the option of using any of the 700Mhz they win combined with the White Space (400Mhz+) spectrum to offer a very aggressive Broadband Wireless Network (Wholesale) using WiMAX based features in these spectrums-2010.
Posted by Quemann | December 17, 2007 - 6:13pm
What will be the next big thing? WiMAX or LTE or UMB? WiMAX is in the marketplace, while LTE and UMB are on the lab bench. USA is the biggest telecom market, but not the most advanced. OECD statistics show USA ranks the 14th in terms of download speed ( below 10 Mbps). AT&T and VZN are playing a waiting game, by adopting an unborn baby. Sprint has got over 80% of 2.5 GHz spectrum in USA, one advantage it has got thanks to acquisition of Nextel. Keen attention is being paid to the upcoming 700Mhz spectrum auction. If Google wins, USA will be one step closer to 4G, and chaqnces are that Sprint may join hands with Google. If not, Asian telecom giants will come knock harder on the door of US telecom industry.
