Sprint Nextel launches WiMAX in 10 more cities

Portland Business Journal

Sprint Nextel Corp. launched its ultra-fast, high-capacity wireless broadband service in 10 U.S. cities, including Salem, on Monday.

The 4G WiMAX service, which can reach downlink speeds as much as 10 times faster than current 3G service, enables applications such as streaming video anywhere in a city, Sprint said in a release. The mobile broadband service became available Monday in Salem.; Milledgeville, Ga.; and the Texas cities of Amarillo, Killeen-Temple, Corpus Christi, Lubbock, Waco, Wichita Falls, Abilene and Midland-Odessa.

“Sprint 4G represents an enormous leap in wireless technology, with valuable benefits for a variety of applications,” John Dupree, a Sprint vice president, said in the release. “Sprint has a significant head start in deploying 4G, and we’re prepared to leverage our 4G speeds and growing national coverage to help businesses, government agencies and educational institutions increase their capabilities, enhance productivity and reduce costs.”

Overland Park, Kan.-based Sprint (NYSE: S) first launched WiMAX in Baltimore in September 2008. Earlier this year, WiMAX launched in five other cities. The 4G service is expected to roll out in 13 more cities by the end of the year and in multiple additional markets in 2010.

Sprint is the first national carrier to launch a 4G technology, which will help accommodate consumers’ growing appetite for data-intensive handset uses. It is doing so through a $14.5 billion deal with Clearwire Corp. (NASDAQ: CLWR), based in Kirkland, Wash. The deal, entered into in December, created a company to roll out WiMAX, branded Clear. Sprint handed over its spectrum and WiMAX-related assets, and the new Clearwire got a $3.2 billion cash investment from strategic investors that included Intel Corp. (NASDAQ: INTC), Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) and big cable companies. Sprint owns about 51 percent of the new company. Investors can resell Clear service under their brands.

However, the rollout is costly, and other national carriers are formulating aggressive plans for competing technologies.

For example, No. 1 carrier Verizon Wireless, which has 87.7 million customers, plans to launch its 4G technology — LTE — in 2010 in as many as 30 markets and have nearly nationwide coverage by the end of 2013.

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