WiMAX will get first commercial deployment in September

LAS VEGAS – After months of uncertainties, it looks as though Sprint will launch its first commercial WiMAX services this September.

Speaking at the NXTComm08 convention in Las Vegas this week, Sprint CEO Dan Hesse for the first time set a firm date for WiMAX’s commercial deployment and announced that Sprint’s Xohm unit would kick off its WiMAX launch in Baltimore this September, with launches in Washington, D.C., and Chicago scheduled for later in the fourth quarter.

Sprint says, however, that other major metropolitan areas shouldn’t expect WiMAX to come to their cities until at least next year. The wireless broadband technology, which Hesse describes as “wireless at rocket speeds,” is currently deployed in 118 countries and is projected by Sprint to be deployed in more than 200 countries by 2012.

During a separate presentation at NXTComm, Xohm senior vice president of business operations Atish Gude outlined the current state of WiMAX and made projections for how the technology will evolve over the next couple of years. In particular, Gude noted that Xohm’s wide array of business partners, including Motorola, Samsung and Intel, will give WiMAX users strong devices and chipsets to use when services are commercially deployed on a more nationwide basis.

“We have crossed several interoperability milestones,” said Gude. “We have put devices through certifications and we have completed a number of data sessions. Samsung’s software has crossed the commercial software threshold, as has Motorola’s.”

But the most important milestone that Xohm has reached, said Gude, has been in provisioning a number of different chipsets and devices over the WiMAX network without any manual intervention by device manufacturers, carriers or vendors. In other words, customers will be able to buy devices in stores and activate them on their own at home without signing a multiyear contract.

“What this will do is separate the purchase of the device from the purchase of the service,” said Gude. “Customers will have the freedom to buy devices on their own without signing multiyear contracts.”

Instead of multiyear deals, said Gude, Xohm and its partners in the Clearwire coalition would offer monthly service contracts that could be renewed or cancelled at will.

In addition to projecting the kinds of service deals that Xohm would offer WiMAX subscribers, Gude also unveiled a timetable for WiMAX’s technological evolution. By the end of 2008, WiMAX chipsets will be primarily installed in PC cards, laptops and ultra-mobile PCs. In 2009, WiMAX will gain duel Wi-Fi functionality and will be embedded in various Windows CE devices, portable media players, personal navigation devices and mobile Internet devices. And finally, by 2010 WiMAX will include Wi-Fi and GPS functionality and will be installed in handsets and cell phones.

Although Sprint’s commercial launch for WiMAX has gone through some fits and starts over the past year, the technology has been steadily gaining steam ever since Sprint and Clearwire struck a deal to combine their WiMAX businesses and create a new $14.5 billion mobile broadband company. In addition to combining their own businesses, the companies also secured $3.2 billion in total investments from several major tech and communications companies, including Google, Intel, Comcast, Time-Warner Cable and Bright House Networks. The two companies also recently joined Cisco and Intel in creating a WiMAX patent pool to help spur on WiMAX innovation.