Sprint Takes On Partners to Boost WiMAX

Washington Post Staff Writers
January 9, 2008

Sprint Nextel yesterday announced a series of partnerships aimed at deploying a high-speed wireless network called WiMAX, as it offered glimpses of the new technology at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

The Reston company said it would partner with SwapDrive of the District to offer online data storage and sharing, McAfee of Santa Clara, Calif., to provide electronic security, and three other companies to create mobile devices, such as lightweight laptops, capable of connecting to the WiMAX network.

Those partnerships, among others, are part of the company's plan to make the service available to customers in the District, Baltimore and Chicago by the end of April. Sprint is already testing the network in those cities.

Sprint's Xohm WiMAX service will allow people to connect mobile devices to the Internet at distances far greater than those offered by wireless systems now in use.

At the trade show, about a dozen Sprint representatives showed how the new system might work in the home, the office or on the road. But there were hiccups. When representatives tried to demonstrate how Xohm helps stream live video feeds from a digital camera to a laptop, network glitches prevented the feature from working correctly.

The nation's third-largest wireless carrier is hoping WiMAX will give it a jump on rivals Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile after months of losing subscribers. Sprint has said it would spend $5 billion to deploy WiMAX throughout the country.

"This is not a test. This is a real technology, and it's our technology," said Barry West, president of Xohm. "We have an opportunity to monetize an asset that we've been the proud owners of for some time."

WiMAX transmission speeds are supposed to be comparable to those offered by digital subscriber line, or DSL, service, which is about four times the speed of dial-up but slower than cable or fiber-optic service.

West said the price would be comparable to at-home DSL or cable service. He said Sprint will release a schedule for deploying the service in other cities in coming months.

The path to deploying WiMAX has been rocky for Sprint. The service, the baby of former chief executive Gary D. Forsee, is months behind schedule, and some analysts have questioned whether the investment in the technology is an appropriate use of money for a company that has been rapidly losing subscribers in its main cellphone business.  West said new chief executive Daniel R. Hesse needs time to set his priorities.

Michael Thelander, a wireless analyst with Signals Research Group, said he expects the technology to work. But it's an open question whether consumers will turn to the service for features like video at prices they'll like.

"There's really only a demand for it if people start using their devices in a fundamentally different way," Thelander said. "WiMAX is not going to give me a better experience than I have from a land line, but it does give me the mobility factor."