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Sprint Plans WiMax Network Rollout

The regional network operated by Sprint Nextel Corp., the nation's third-largest cellular provider, will offer wireless Internet speeds that match DSL and cable TV modems and allow people to have constant access to the Internet from a laptop as they travel the area.

Chicago, Washington and Baltimore will have access to the WiMAX network by the end of the year. Officials at Kansas City, Mo.-based Sprint said they expect the $3 billion project to reach more than 100 million Americans in 16 other cities by the end of 2008 and take three years to complete.

"We're not building another cellular voice network," Barry West, Sprint's chief technology officer, told the Chicago Tribune. "Our killer application for this new network is mobile access to the Internet."

Sprint said it would build the WiMax network using its cell sites and equipment by Motorola Inc., Samsung Electronics Co. and Nokia Corp.

Intel Corp., along with Motorola and Samsung, will provide chips that can link devices such as laptops, phones and other electronic gear to either a Wi-Fi network or a WiMax network, and also operate on Sprints cellular network.

WiMax is derived from the same technology as the popular Wi-Fi standard that provides wireless Internet access in such places as airports and coffee shops. Unlike Wi-Fi, which provides wireless Internet access over a several hundred foot range, a WiMax signal can blanket a much wider area.

WiMax, short for Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access, has been mentioned as a possible alternative to cable modem and Digital Subscriber Line services offered by cable and telephone companies. It's also touted as a tool to connect emerging markets to the Internet.

Wi-Fi cards are standard in most new laptops, and chipmakers such as Intel are expected to provide WiMax compatibility in much the same way, said Ken Hyers, an analyst with Technology Business Research.