Sprint adds WiMAX router to Mi-Fi roster

Sprint is offering two new wireless routers that let users connect their Wi-Fi-enabled devices to the company's WiMAX  network.

Sprint says that both the consumer-targeted Sprint Personal Hotspot PHS300S and business-targeted Cradlepoint MBR-1000 Broadband Router offer similar capabilities to the Mi-Fi personal hotspots that the company debuted earlier this year. The wireless routers let users connect to Sprint's 3G EV-DO network as well as its faster WiMAX network. The routers essentially take incoming EV-DO and WiMAX traffic and then sends it out through Wi-Fi.

"The addition of these mobile hotspot products offers even faster connectivity speeds to Wi-Fi users without the need to find a Wi-Fi hotspot," says Todd Rowley, vice president, Sprint 4G. "These two new products can potentially connect the Sprint 3G and 4G networks to the hundreds of millions of Wi-Fi-enabled devices in the U.S. today."

The company is selling the Hot Spot PHS300S for $160, while it is selling the Cradlepoint MBR1000 for $250. Sprint says that the routers are only on sale in stores in areas where the company has already rolled out its WiMAX services.

Sprint, in tandem with its partners at Clearwire, is currently offering its WiMAX services in Baltimore, Las Vegas, Atlanta and Portland, Ore. Clearwire is planning to roll out WiMAX in 10 smaller markets next month, including Boise, Idaho, and eight markets in Texas. Sprint also has plans to commercially launch WiMAX this year in Charlotte, N.C.; Chicago; Dallas; Fort Worth, Texas; Honolulu, Philadelphia and Seattle. In 2010 the company expects to launch WiMAX services in Boston, Houston, New York, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.

Sprint's WiMAX division -- which is now calling itself Sprint 4G -- also says it plans to release several WiMAX devices in 2009 and 2010, such as a single-mode WiMAX data card, WiMAX-embedded laptops and a small-office WiMAX broadband modem. Sprint's WiMAX services are the fastest mobile broadband services on the market, offering peak downlink speeds of 12Mbps and average downlink speeds between 2Mbps and 4Mbps.

By rolling out its WiMAX services in major cities, Sprint is hoping to stay ahead of the curve of rival carriers AT&T and Verizon, which each plan to launch their own 4G mobile data services based on Long Term Evolution (LTE) in roughly two years. LTE is the latest variation of Global Systems for Mobile Communications (GSM) technology and is seen as the natural progression of High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA), the GSM technology that is used by carriers such as AT&T to deliver 3G mobile data services.