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Sprint to offer tri-mode phone, may expand 4G markets
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Sprint Nextel will offer a tri-mode phone that offers CDMA, WiFi and WiMAX connectivity, and may launch its Sprint 4G service in markets that it previously has not disclosed.
"We haven't announced specific timing or any more details other than to say we expect to offer a 4G phone on our road map for 2009-2010," a Sprint spokeswoman told Unstrung. Previous reports have hinted that this tri-mode phone may use Google's Android platform, but that has never been confirmed by Sprint.
Sprint has not said what the exact schedule of the its 4G launches will be. However, the spokeswoman said that Sprint may launch in markets it has not previously talked about. "The list in the release isn't necessarily inclusive of everything for 2009 and 2010," she said.
In late March, Sprint announced a list of markets where it was going to launch its Sprint 4G services, which mirrored the buildout schedule of WiMAX service provider Clearwire. Sprint will operate as an MVNO to Clearwire, in which it holds a 51 percent stake.
Sprint said at the time that in 2009 it would launch Sprint 4G service in Atlanta, Chicago, Charlotte, Dallas/Ft.Worth, Honolulu, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, Portland and Seattle. Sprint also said it plans to launch service in Boston, Houston, New York, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., in 2010.
For more:
- see this Unstrung article
Related Articles:
Sprint mirrors Clearwire with 4G rollout plans
Clearwire will launch at least eight markets in 2009
The pros and cons of Clearwire
New Clearwire announces 'Clear' brand
Sprint launches 3G/4G dual-mode modem
Sprint to launch CDMA-WiMAX products
Comments
Posted by Jim A | May 29, 2009 - 12:26pm
This was predicted we made many months ago and was a natural transition to the Broadband Wireless World.
The only difference here will be that future WiMAX versions will be based on the 700Mhz and White Space based Spectrums, in that the Clearwire 2.5Ghz spectrum systems (Mobile)will have limited success in working in heavy canopied (East Coast) Markets. Their service will ulitmately be focused on Point to Point and Fixed/Nomadic services vs Mobile.
What AT&T does with its new 4G service is what will lead the next 3 years (before VZW LTE Nets go into service). How they use their 700Mhz & or AWS 1 systems and whether they commit to a WiMAX 700Mhz based product will define whether they dominate the data only wireless space in the next 3 years.
They cannot afford to wait until 2011-2012 if they are to be competitive with VZW-they need a Data only Broadband Wireless Service now and they can get that with a tri-mode (HSPA/WiMAX/WiFi) based product. In short they cannot gamble with their stated upgrade of the HSPA E product since it will not be enough.
Jacomo
Posted by Jim A | May 29, 2009 - 12:26pm
This was predicted we made many months ago and was a natural transition to the Broadband Wireless World.
The only difference here will be that future WiMAX versions will be based on the 700Mhz and White Space based Spectrums, in that the Clearwire 2.5Ghz spectrum systems (Mobile)will have limited success in working in heavy canopied (East Coast) Markets. Their service will ulitmately be focused on Point to Point and Fixed/Nomadic services vs Mobile.
What AT&T does with its new 4G service is what will lead the next 3 years (before VZW LTE Nets go into service). How they use their 700Mhz & or AWS 1 systems and whether they commit to a WiMAX 700Mhz based product will define whether they dominate the data only wireless space in the next 3 years.
They cannot afford to wait until 2011-2012 if they are to be competitive with VZW-they need a Data only Broadband Wireless Service now and they can get that with a tri-mode (HSPA/WiMAX/WiFi) based product. In short they cannot gamble with their stated upgrade of the HSPA E product since it will not be enough.
Jacomo
Posted by Anonymous | May 29, 2009 - 2:41pm
This technollogy is a non starter in the US. After 2 years only one city on air in US.Sprint is bankrupt after aquiring the dead beat Nextel IDEN network and now Clearwire is going to be next. VZW, ATT, Metro, Cricket all are going LTE so Sprint will be standing out like a sore thumb. They do not have the backhaul or the means to support this technology unless they shut down Nextel in the 800MHz band(which is a dead horse anyway: PTT is just a feature now not a standalone technology.).Nokia is out of Wimax business and more will follow once Verizon starts building out LTE very soon.
Posted by Alan Weissberger | May 30, 2009 - 11:22pm
This is old news. The Unstrung article came out in March, so why is it being regurgitated now?
Here's an article on wimax360.com that I wrote on the same subject last February:
Sprint may sell tri-mode phone in 2010 that will include VoiP over WiMAXPosted by Alan J Weissberger on February 14, 2009
On the contrary, SPRINT said it's delaying its CLEAR MVNO offerings till Clearwire completes more deployments. So don't hold your breath for their tri mode phone to be commercially available.
So why the spin cycle when there is no real news?
Posted by WilliamC | June 1, 2009 - 2:33pm
Hold your breath and count to ten - anonymous - May 29, 2009 - 2:41 p.m. if you think we believe your comments. (IF THAT IS THE CASE THAT NEXTEL Push-to-talk is dead - then why is VERIZON and AT&T offering a SLOW and comparable service????? Who writes this stuff any way??? They don't have the back haul. What does Push-to-talk have to do with Wimax any way??? (Just unbelievable posters)
Posted by Unstrung | June 5, 2009 - 12:49pm
I got an update on this. Sprint now says it will offer 3 more "4G" markets this summer, piggybacking on Clearwire's Atlanta, Portland and Las Vegas market
Dan Jones
Unstrung.com
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