Earlier this week, Sprint Nextel made good on its promise to introduce a device featuring dual-mode 3G/4G capability on Clearwire’s fledgling WiMAX (4G) network, which is up and running in Baltimore and slated to go on line in Portland, Ore., early next year.
“We promised the market that we would have a dual-mode device by the end of this year, and that’s what we delivered,” said Sprint spokesperson John Polivka.
But the new dual-mode U300 modem is merely the first device to come out of the wireless carrier’s long-range plans for a device portfolio that will consist of single-mode 4G devices, embedded 4G laptops, and dual-mode 3G/4G devices. The advantage of the latter products, which will all be capable of delivering WiMAX downlink speeds of two to four Mbps, is that they can “fall back on 3G whenever they are beyond a WiMAX service area,” Polivka said.
Under Development
To make dual-mode devices a reality, Sprint runs an application-developer program for software that runs on all its networks, and it operates a technology lab in Kansas City. Sprint also has launched a hardware partner development program to produce the products Sprint intends to run on Clearwire’s infrastructure.
“It is still in the early stages and we are not at liberty to disclose the names of the program’s partners at this time,” Polivka said. However, he pointed out that Sprint’s new U300 modem was made by Franklin Wireless and the telecom operator expects to develop its entire WiMAX-capable product portfolio in cooperation with other companies.
Polivka also said he isn’t worried about Sprint’s 4G thunder being stolen by competing technologies such as the Long Term Evolution (LTE) standard championed by Ericsson, Nokia and Qualcomm, among others. “WiMAX, which works in the 2.5-GHz spectrum, is here and now” whereas other 4G technologies “are several years…