Sprint Names New Cities For 4G WiMax Deployment

Sprint on Wednesday said it would deploy WiMax services in 10 United States cities in 2009 and follow with five more markets in 2010.

Sprint 4G service will this year come to Atlanta; Charlotte, N.C.; Chicago; Dallas; Fort Worth,Texas; Honolulu; Las Vegas; Philadelphia; and Seattle. Portland, Ore., the 10th listed city, was named for WiMax rollout by Sprint in January, Sprint said.

The additional target markets for 2010, Sprint said, are five of the country's most populous cities: Boston; Houston; New York; San Francisco; and Washington, D.C.

"Sprint continues to lead the wireless industry by harnessing the power of WiMax," said Todd Rowley, vice president of Sprint 4G, in a statement. "The availability of Sprint 4G in more places this year and our aggressive expansion of Sprint 4G service demonstrates our commitment to provide 4G capabilities and devices nationwide for our business, consumer and government customers. These capabilities enable significantly enhanced performance and productivity for our customers."

Among the 4G devices Sprint is planning for the next two years are a single-mode 4G data card, embedded laptops, a small-office/home-office broadband modem and a tri-mode phone, Sprint said.

Sprint has pressed forward with its plans for 4G WiMax in the U.S. despite a brutal fourth-quarter earnings performance and telecommunications company Verizon unveiling rollout plans for Long Term Evolution (LTE), the rival 4G technology to WiMax. At the time, a Sprint spokesperson said that Sprint considered Verizon's plans "a validation of our vision from two years ago to bring 4G to this industry."

Sprint-Nextel and Clearwire closed a $14.5 billion merger deal in December to combine their 4G businesses. Baltimore became the first U.S. city to receive a complete 4G WiMax rollout last fall.

Sprint's WiMax product offerings include the first dual-mode 3G/4G USB modem.

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