Sprint to roll out WiMAX.

Sprint/Nextel, in partnership with Intel, Motorola and Samsung, will roll out a mobile WiMAX network (a technology also known as 802.11e) at a cost of $3 billion; it is expected to be available to 100 million Americans by 2008.

In the US, Sprint/Nextel owns the majority of the 2.5 GHz spectrum that is suitable for WiMAX transmission. Sprint announced that a WiMAX subscriber is likely to be able to receive 2-4 mbps, which is up to four times faster than subscribers are currently experiencing on their wireless 3G networks. While consumers will welcome the extra speed, from Sprint’s point of view the extra bandwidth enables greater network efficiency so it can service greater numbers of customers per cell.

Together with the network rollout, Sprint announced its intention to develop a chipset with Intel, Motorola and Samsung so a variety of interactive consumer electronic and computing devices will be able to take advantage of the WiMAX network. Intel, for one, has been a huge advocate of WiMAX, and Sprint’s decision to go with WiMAX as a wireless broadband technology must have been greeted with a mixture of joy and relief in that company.