Sprint Confirms WiMAX Tests on Schedule

Sprint Nextel has hired a new CEO and confirmed that it plans to begin field-testing its Xohm-brand WiMAX network within the next two weeks. Several hundred Sprint employees in the test markets – Chicago and Washington, DC/Baltimore will get WiMAX adapter cards for PCs in phase one. A second-test stage will add more employees in the first quarter.

A commercial rollout is expected in the last half of 2008 and will include devices that have WiMAX embedded in them. Intel is not expected to have its WiMAX/Wi-Fi chipsets ready for shipment until sometime in the second quarter of 2008.

New Man at the Helm
This week Sprint Nextel hired Dan Hesse as its new president and CEO. He replaces Gary Forsee, who resigned under stockholder pressure in October. Hesse has been chairman, president and CEO of the wireline phone company Embarq since it was spun out of Sprint in 2006. He worked for AT&T for 23 years, including a stint as president and CEO of AT&T Wireless Services from 1997 to 2000.

Sprint and Hesse face financial and operational problems. Its 2005 merger with Nextel resulted in the continuing loss of subscribers. It decision to bet the house on WiMAX has been questioned because WiMAX as a mobile phone service is still an unproven technology. The turmoil caused Sprint’s deal with Clearwire to build a compatible but not overlapping national WiMAX network to fall through. There are those that predict the deal will be resuscitated in late 2008, once Sprint’s plans are in place – such as whether to spin out the Xohm WiMAX operation or to bring a deep-pocketed company or companies in as partners. Intel, Samsung, Motorola and Google have vested interests in seeing the Xohm effort succeed.

Compatibility Testing & Certification of WiMAX Mobile Devices Starts

It is certain that mobile devices with WiMAX built-in will begin coming to market in 2008.

The WiMAX Forum this week opened its lead certification lab for formal Mobile WiMAX certification testing and evaluation of Mobile WiMAX products. WiMAX Forum vendors may begin immediately submitting their 2.3 GHz and 2.5 GHz Mobile WiMAX equipment for testing.

The WiMAX Forum’s lead certification lab is headquartered at AT4 Wireless in Spain. The Forum expects its four other certification labs in the US, Taiwan, China and Korea to open for formal Mobile WiMAX certification testing shortly.

The organization said certified Mobile WiMAX products are projected to reach the commercial market in early 2008. It expects hundreds of products to be submitted for testing.

“This important milestone in our WiMAX Forum certification program culminates years of development of our certification process and signifies the success of the WiMAX ecosystem’s progress and market lead relative to alternative mobile broadband technologies such as LTE which are several years behind WiMAX technology,” said Ron Resnick, president, WiMAX Forum. “The beginning of Mobile WiMAX certification enables our member companies to deliver on their business commitments, and ultimately moves WiMAX service providers closer to bringing the mobile broadband Internet experience and new applications to consumers around the globe next year.”

Equipment that passes conformance and interoperability testing will receive the WiMAX Forum Certified designation, thus, assuring service providers that when buying equipment from more than one company the products are interoperable.

“Certification facilitates Xohm’s model for open access,” said Barry West, president of Sprint’s Xohm Business Unit. The move, he said, would “encourage device innovation in anticipation of Sprint’s WiMAX network launch in the US.”

Throughout 2008, service providers are expected to expand current Mobile WiMAX deployments to broader populations in their regions. The WiMAX Forum currently estimates that more than 300 operators in over 65 countries have deployed Mobile WiMAX pilots and trials.

“In Korea, WiMAX technology is the cornerstone of our mobile broadband deployment because of its vast and thriving ecosystem of equipment and solution providers that share our commitment to address the needs of the Korean market and redefine the mobile broadband experience for Korean businesses and citizens,” said Hyun Pyo Kim, director of WiBro planning for Korea Telecom. “Today, with more than 100,000 active Mobile WiMAX users and 410,000 subscribers projected for 2008, the availability of WiMAX Forum Certified mobile equipment will enable us to significantly expand our customer base and mobile broadband service offerings.”

Based on the proliferation of certified equipment, the WiMAX Forum will conduct additional product interoperability activities for new Mobile WiMAX profiles and features, such as testing for the planned certification for 3.5 GHz and 700 MHz profiles and core network certification through Mobile WiMAX PlugFests in 2008.

Beceem’s Mobile WiMAX Chips Test Out

Beceem, which is developing WiMAX chips for mobile devices, has finished its initial interoperability testing with Sprint’s WiMAX infrastructure.

Intel Takes WiMAX to Russia with Comstar

Intel continued to show its worldwide interest in all things WiMAX by partnering up with Russian outfit Comstar to build a citywide WiMAX network, and then expand to other cities in Russia. The network is scheduled to launch by the end of 2008. It will allow access to users of laptops and mobile devices that have embedded Intel’s WiMAX/Wi-Fi chipsets. Intel is helping fund WiMAX deployment in high growth markets in Asia and Latin America plus Clearwire in the States and Pipex Wireless in the UK. Anyone think Intel and Google aren’t very, very interested in seeing the Xohm WiMAX network that Sprint is building succeed?

WiMAX to Hit Stride in 2013

It’ll take a couple of years before mobile WiMAX will begin to take off, according to a Juniper Research report, which says there’ll be over 80 million WiMAX subscribers globally by 2013.

“Mobile WiMAX will represent a single-digit proportion of the global mobile broadband base by 2013. This will be a tremendous achievement for this new technology platform,” said Howard Wilcox, the report’s author. He said the largest WiMAX markets will be the US, Japan and South Korea.

Sprint Considering Xohm Spinoff

At the recent WiMAX conference in Chicago, the leader of Sprint’s Xohm WiMAX efforts, Xohm president and Sprint CTO Barry West, talked as if the WiMAX operation was or would soon be operating as a separate company. Nothing to that effect was reported because no definitive statement was made. This week Sprint’s acting CEO Paul Saleh told investors that Sprint is considering two possibilities to help it through its financial troubles. One is a spinoff of its WiMAX network and then possibly becoming a reseller of the service. Saleh also said the company might seek investors to help pay some of the estimated $17 million to $20 million cost of building the WiMAX network. Those costs would cover building a network that would cover about 63% of the US population. At one point Sprint had a tentative deal with Clearwire that called for Clearwire’s WiMAX network to cover the other 37%, but that deal was scuttled several weeks back.

Motorola CEO and CTO Resign

First Motorola CEO Ed Zander resigns. Then a few days later the company’s CTO, Padmasree Warrior, left too. Nokia, with its global approach in handset development and no holds barred marketing, plus Apple’s innovative iPhone, took advantage of Motorola’s inability to develop a winning handset after its highly successful RAZR. Under Zander and Warrior, Motorola has been a major backer and developer of WiMAX technology. Sprint, another major WiMAX backer, also recently lost its CEO.

Sprint Considering Xohm Spinoff

At the recent WiMAX conference in Chicago, the leader of Sprint’s Xohm WiMAX efforts, Xohm president and Sprint CTO Barry West, talked as if the WiMAX operation was or would soon be operating as a separate company. Nothing to that effect was reported because no definitive statement was made. This week Sprint’s acting CEO Paul Saleh told investors that Sprint is considering two possibilities to help it through its financial troubles. One is a spinoff of its WiMAX network and then possibly becoming a reseller of the service. Saleh also said the company might seek investors to help pay some of the estimated $17 million to $20 million cost of building the WiMAX network. Those costs would cover building a network that would cover about 63% of the US population. At one point Sprint had a tentative deal with Clearwire that called for Clearwire’s WiMAX network to cover the other 37%, but that deal was scuttled several weeks back.