Sprint preps 15-city WiMAX roll-out
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US telecom-services provider Sprint has announced that it will extend its WiMAX-based 4G wireless-broadband service to 10 American cities this year, with five more scheduled for 2010.
Today, Sprint offers 4G service in only one test city: Baltimore, Maryland. Although that service is rated at a peak of 12Mbps, the company readily admits that true download speeds are more average more in the 2-to-4Mbps range - which still beats the pants off most 3G services.
If all goes as planned, the cities to be added during 2009 include:
- Atlanta, Georgia
- Charlotte, North Carolina
- Chicago, Illinois
- Dallas, Texas
- Fort Worth, Texas
- Honolulu, Hawaii
- Las Vegas, Nevada
- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- Portland, Oregon
- Seattle, Washington
The five additional cities scheduled for a 2010 roll-out are:
- Boston, Massachusetts
- Houston, Texas
- New York City, New York
- San Francisco, California
- Washington, D.C.
The 2009 expansion will increase the population covered by Sprint by over 15 times. Add the cities planned for 2010 - which includes the Big Kahuna, New York City - and Sprint's WiMAX coverage will be available to over 22 million potential customers, an increase of 35 times its current availability.
But the rival 4G standard, LTE, isn't standing still. As we noted last month, Verizon is planning its first LTE roll-out for next year. LTE also has garnered significant support over the past year, while WiMAX has lost some of its luster.
It has always been known that WiMAX would be deployed before LTE. The question is whether it can parlay that head start into a global success. ®
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COMMENTS
@@ Anonymous Telstra Rep
Competing standards are fine, just remember that over-hype is remembered by customers and compare yourselves with all competition.
All things being equal (UL+DL spectrum, number of subscribers in a cell, distance from RBS) a WiMAX device today will not out-perform a HSPA device today,. Trying to say you're 4G and avoid this comparison is naive. Forget about LTE this time next year and concentrate on the real competition.
No Testra employees over here in North America!
@ Anonymous Telstra Rep
Forget all the crap about peek rates, those are for the marketing clowns to spout. Telstra actually say that typical rates are 500K to a maximum of 8M. That 8M would be on a very lightly loaded network... Frankly on a well loaded network you will be lucky with the 500K
WiMAX is dedicated to data and makes no compromise sharing with voice so does perform better when comparing loaded networks. Voice usually gets priority over data. Sure the WiMAX ecosystem is not there yet so there aren't many terminal options but it's getting there.
What's the beef with competing standards anyway? Competition drives costs down...
WiMAX =<HSPA=<LTE
""Today, Sprint offers 4G service in only one test city: Baltimore, Maryland. Although that service is rated at a peak of 12Mbps, the company readily admits that true download speeds are more average more in the 2-to-4Mbps range - which still beats the pants off most 3G services.""
What utter BS.
You compare how the iPhone (a 3.6 Mbps/R99 HSDPA handset, where your hand steals about 6db from the precious HSDPA link budget, not the 7.2Mbps/1.4Mbps USBs that most people are using for MBB) compares on masses of well loaded voice and data networks, and compare this with a data-card or Fixed Wireless Terminal on a lightly loaded 'state-of-the-art' WiMAX network!!!!!!!
Have you not heard of Telstra , holder of the Guinness Record Fastest NATIONAL Mobile Broadband network, in case you forgot
( http://www.telstra.com.au/abouttelstra/media/announcements_article.cfm?ObjectID=44442 )
There is no such thing as 4G yet, so all you can go by is the experience, not some poncy self-styled moniker, and Clear's network is solidly in the 3G class, albeit with a few % of the device choice, no 'phones' and relying on a technology it solidly derided (CDMA) to provide roaming coverage. 'Up to 150 Mbps' for WiMAX would be 'up to 200 Mbps' for HSPA+ since with will scale to 160Mbps down, 40Mbps Up. Of course just like WiMAX, today's devices won't be able to support those speeds, but the technology potential is just as ripe, and has more vendor and operator backing to ensure that potential is delivered.
FAIL. Please hand back the 'promotional consideration' you took for publishing this tripe!
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