Well, what do we have here? One of our readers sent us a screenshot from Sprint's Sales Portal that included the above roadmap for its
WiMAX rollout this year. A number of the yet-to-be-launched cities we've already heard about --
Chicago, Philadelphia, Dallas, and Charlotte -- but to the best of our knowledge, the rest of them are brand new entries. Additionally, Baltimore residents can look forward to some sort of coverage update in the fourth quarter. We'd be lying if we said we weren't jealous that Salem (population 3,000) and Milledgeville (population 19,000) are getting the wireless network before most of us on staff, but the service has to start somewhere, right? No indication here of 2010 plans, but
last we heard that included Boston, Houston, New York, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.
Update: As tipster Carlos points out, Clearwire's website already has some
coverage maps for some of the cities listed in the third quarter, as well as some markets not listed here.
posted August 1st 2009 5:35PM
WTF. Get it on with Chicago already!!!!!!!!!!!!
Midland Texas is getting wimax...got an email from clearwire
Bellingham! HELL YEAH!
Excellence on the Bham. I scanned the list, expecting to see Seattle...but Bellingham...wow.
I guess we already have a pretty established Clearwire service area.
NY and Boston AFTER these? this is a joke, right....
Large urban markets take a lot more time to buildout than smaller rural markets due to line of sight problems, zoning requirements, and getting backhaul to support tens of thousands or even millions of users vs a few thousand.
WOOT Baltimore!
Where the heck is Milledgeville?
What happened to Seattle, which they promised for 2009??
sprints response: Oh that...ha you believed that ? It was a joke, screw Seattle.
yay for Raleigh being on the 2009 list.
I wonder if Sprint understands how much bad will exists with the Clearwire name...
2 weeks ago some clearwire sales guy in the mall kiosk was trying to sell me on it, telling me to buy it now, and lock in the price, because they are making it 4G soon, and the price will go out.
(In Raleigh)
Clearwire is pretty good.. They give you a product on hand and the price is locked.. Wait for other competitors it will change how they market and sell this product..
Are these companies stupid? WiMAX works best in FLAT areas and gives the best signal strengths! Phoenix Arizona would be phenomenal for this product..
Bring on Lincoln, NE / Omaha, NE / Kansas City, MO / Denver, CO
Soooo, they hit west texas, DFW, San Antonio and Austin but not Houston? WTF?
Georgia Southern is in Statesboro, GA, not Milledgeville.
Georgia College and Georgia Military are in Milledgeville.
The service is already live in Chicago and has been for atleast the 6 months I have been using it. I just set a mailbox with a Baltimore UPS store which forwards my mail to Chicago. I used that address to register for the service.
I have used the service in Atlanta, Las Vegas, and Dallas as well. The gear exist in pockets.
I feel like they are trying to get a good sample of different cities, to see the percentage of people in smaller towns who would actually be interested in 4g versus the big city where people buy phones for new technologies. Maybe the smaller cities are just testers for future sprint networks...
Why not just put a few towers in nyc up and call it a day?
These A holes are nuts are they not?
You would think the Kansas City Metro area would be on there, or at least Overland Park, you know, because that is where Sprints world headquarters is. Way to alienate your neighbors Sprint. Lol
Salem is probably supposed to be Winston-Salem which has a Pop. of about 200,000 and is a neighbor of Greensboro Pop. 240,000 with a combined metro area of around 1 million including High Point and surrounding communities. The Triad area of NC was one of Clearwire's original locations when the company launched with pre-Wimax and expanded thru out metro North Carolina. So, it would make sense for Clearwire to upgrade the pre-Wimax network to Wimax now instead of later.
Raleigh and Charlotte? That's me, hooray!
I call BS..or at least laziness on Sprints behalf...after all Boise, IA does not exist, however Boise, ID does...Being from Iowa it saddens me that we don't get any Des Moines love, but on top of that to get us mixed up with Idaho? For shame! We grow the corn and have the swine population, they have the potatoes...lets get it right people, the more you know! Knowledge is power!
I appears that the WiMax rollout maybe piggybacking on existing Airband Communication, Inc's installations. If that is truly the case then perhaps 2010 cities might include Phoenix, Houston, Miami, Ft Lauderdale, Los Angeles, Orange County, and San Diego.
Nothing really new here -- if this is the real Sprint delivery list it's probably a dated one since they are already live in Vegas and Portland. As for the smaller cities, it's basically a list of where Clearwire has pre-WiMAX services today -- meaning it's pretty straightforward for the company to add the new radios to existing towers and light the new technology.
And it looks like some of those small markets are already launching; see our story today:
http://www.sidecutreports.com/2009/08/01/clearwire-adding-smaller-markets-to-4g-coverage-map/
$79.99 a month for 3G/4G plan and no 4G only plan? that sucks! I was hoping to have 4G only at reasonable price like Xohm where you can have 2 4G modem and $50 a month.
Clear has been pushing their service in my area. Home and mobile for about what I pay now for a Sprint card. Tempting.
But there's no mention of roaming when you leave Clear's smallish native area, and there seem to be a lot of unhappy customers. Google searches find a lot of people who seem to have had worse customer service issues than even with Sprint, and that's downright scary.
If Clear wants me to commit to a two-year contract, they need to show that they will be around, that the service works, and that they can be trusted to deliver what they promise. Otherwise why bother.
Plus, Sprint is hiring 4G sales folks in Austin, so they must be ramping up.
Why are they doing second tier cities? Worthless, cut out the bitch cities and go for NYC, LA, Seattle. Pathetic!
I go to Georgia College and State University in Milledgeville, Ga. I feel that it is kinda random that 4G would be coming to our small town so soon, but there is one major reason that could be the cause of this. Milledgeville is the closest "city" to The Ritz Carleton at Reynolds Plantation. The Ritz at Reynolds holds many high profile events for many fortune 500 companies year round and it is probably being placed in the area to service some of the really influential people that visit there.
Yeah! Austin 4th Quater. Hopefully the TP2 is Wimax compatible.
I live in Dallas and have terrible reception with my Tour. ANy hope that rolling this out will benefit 3G users? Are they adding new towers or just modding old ones?
Unofficially, WiMax is already operational in DC. Part of proximity to Baltimore and Sprint's presence here. It's not full coverage, but as an example, @chrisbachmann has his WiMax card and uses it regularly in and around his work in DC.
Where in DC do you get 4G coverage?
Where in DC does your friend get 4G coverage?