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Post-Forsee, Sprint faces pressure over WiMAX
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Was it only two weeks ago that the industry was celebrating the surging WiMAX market and Sprint Nextel's leadership of the WiMAX ecosystem? Now, following the resignation of Sprint CEO Gary Forsee, the company reportedly is facing pressure from investors to halt or slow its $5 billion WiMAX strategy.
Sprint CTO Barry West has been a one-man, promotional tour-de-force for WiMAX, and for the company to turn back now almost seems unthinkable. With Sprint's WiMAX plans only at the trial stage, turning back is still a possibility. If that were to happen, would Sprint also lose West, one of the brightest and most engaging technologists in telecom? And what will become of WiMAX? Many other companies are supporting the technology, but Sprint's commitment inspired and forced other service providers, including telcos, to take a closer look at WiMAX.
For more on Sprint's WiMAX plans:
- CNET covers Wall Street's WiMAX worries
Comments
Posted by Quemann | October 22, 2007 - 5:57pm
There are good news and bad, in technology world.
When we talk about Sprint's 4G network, we should look into the business alliance with
Samsung, Motorola and Nokia in building 4G networks across USA since Sprint Nextel has got over 80% of national 2.5 GHz spectrum. Bad news is Gary Foresee stepped down, causing some turbulence. Good news is WiMAX has got ITU approval, defeating UMB of Qualcomm and LTE of Ericsson. Lots of good things and bad mix each other all the time in technology world. And still it is too early to say anything about Sprint, except that investors are unahppy.
Posted by JJ | November 7, 2007 - 8:56pm
WiMax is just a hype from Chip Giant Intel Corporation. Every Laptop sell after late 2008 will have WiFi and WiMax CPE built in. The only problem is that there is no service provider in US to WIMAX service if Sprint delay its deployment plan. My CDMA phone works great with my laptop in providing internet access on the go, and it is free after 9pm during weekday, I constant use it during trip.
WiMAX will be a good technology for third world countries where infrustructure is not well established.
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