14 DAY TRIAL // Wireless carrier Sprint seems determined to make big moves with the 4G WiMAX technology that already powers Clearwire's CLEAR network in the US. The company is already offering WiMAX services to users in several areas, and intends to deliver them to even more customers, while also providing more handsets that support the technology.
One of these devices should be a 4G smartphone that would run under Google's Android operating system, at least this is what an article on PC World says. While featuring a WiMAX connectivity, the handset is also expected to come with support for 3G, offering backwards compatibility with the already existing 3G network.
According to the piece of news, Todd Rowley, vice president of Sprint's 4G/WiMAX business unit, is the one who talked about the device. Although no name was given, it seems that the carrier is already working with a handset maker for the development of the device, which should land on the market sometime in 2010, as soon as the WiMAX network can deliver coverage to more than 100 million users.
As many of you might already know, Clearwire announced that its 4G network was expected to become available commercially in more than 80 markets in the US before the end of the next year, and it seems that Sprint Nextel is one of the companies that will support the $2.3-billion needs of Clearwire for the deployment of WiMAX in new markets.
“If the funding is not there, we are clearly willing and able to step up to our fair share of whatever that funding requirement is,” Sprint Nextel CEO Dan Hesse stated at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia conference, IDG News Service notes. “Our goal with Clearwire is just that they keep building out that 4G network very, very quickly,” he also added. Sprint, most of you might already know, acts as an MVNO on Clearwire's WiMAX network.