August 30, 2007

WiMax: Sprint Keeps the Ball Rolling. Announces NYC Partner

It's quite interesting to watch the march of WiMax. Think about it - only a few years ago Intel pushed the WiFi revolution that we now all enjoy. Now, with Intel's backing, Sprint is quickly pushing the building of its WiMax network and has selected Samsung to build the network in New York.

WiMax enables faster and father reaching wireless data transmissions. This means that video, voice and data will be used even more by businesses and consumers.

Reuters wrote that:

- Samsung had previously been awarded the Washington, DC, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Providence, R.I. and Boston markets as part of Sprint's push to use the mobile WiMax wireless standard.

- Sprint is working with top telecommunications players Nokia, Motorola, Samsung and chip maker Intel Corp. to develop chips, devices and network gear for such services.

- It has also reached a deal to feature Google's Web search services via a portal for its WiMax devices.

Sprint is taking the leadership, to build out WiMax, with a nice array of solid partners - it's all good news for small businesses.

I've covered WiMax quite a bit here.

News Factor writes Major metropolitan areas are where heavy data use occurs, and New York is obviously a key market for Sprint Nextel, said company spokesperson John Polivka, who pointed out that the network actually will extend into central and north New Jersey as well.

"New York area residents are going to be able to access the network with a range of computer, portable Relevant Products/Services multimedia, interactive, and other consumer-centric devices," Polivka noted. "They will begin to see the service in late 2008."

Those of you in other metropolitan cities - keep on the look out - WiMax is going to be built first in major metro areas and then slow build to other destinations in a similar build out as WiFi I believe - but only faster.

This is not a technology that should prevent you from leveraging WiFi, but you should keep your eye on this new technology as it's going to be an important part of business communication in the next year or so.

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