NXTComm 2008: Hesse sees WiMAX as broadband wireless future

Commercial service to launch in Baltimore in September

by Jim Barthold

A combination of growing demand for broadband wireless data along with a two-year jump on LTE, its major competition in fourth-generation mobile, makes WiMAX a formidable play worthy of total commitment from Sprint, the carrier’s president-CEO and resident television star Dan Hesse said during a second day keynote at NXTComm08 in Las Vegas.

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When it comes to data Sprint is committed through third generation networks, as evidenced by the Instinct phone — the carrier’s answer to the iPhone — which goes on sale June 20.

When it comes to fourth generation networks, “WiMAX represents a solution,” said Hesse, who said that WiMAX “could have a two-year lead over our competition.”

WiMAX start with a commercial deployment in Baltimore in September followed by launches in Chicago and Washington, D.C. later in the year. Those launches will be part of the new Clearwire, a coalition effort spearheaded by Sprint that also includes cable players Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Bright House Networks, Google and Intel, which is promising WiMAX- capable chipsets for “dozens of devices,” Hesse said. In total, he said, “we believe WiMAX is on track to revolutionize communications.”

One revolutionary factor will be to continue Sprint’s commitment to openness.

“WiMAX is inherently open and we will keep WiMAX open … no walled gardens,” Hesse promised.

WiMAX is Sprint’s way of betting on a fourth-generation future that’s as different from its competition as Sprint tries to be with everything from advertising to minute plans to open networks.

“The wireless world is fascinating; it’s a fast moving place,” Hesse said.