Sprint promises 'many' new 4G markets in 2010; New York, SF included
By Chris Ziegler 
posted February 25th 2010 3:28PM
posted February 25th 2010 3:28PM
With LTE onslaughts from Verizon and AT&T (not to mention countless carriers around the world) drawing near, Sprint's wasting no time beefing up its WiMAX network ahead of its competitors' 4G launches in an effort to give WiMAX the best chance it can. Without giving a hard figure, the company says that it expects to launch WiMAX service in "many" markets this year, with several notables among the lot: Boston, Denver, Kansas City, Houston, Minneapolis, New York, San Francisco and Washington, DC are all called out by name. SF and the Big Apple in particular will be huge wins -- assuming the deployments go smoothly -- thanks to abnormally high concentrations of geeks (including yours truly, of course) that will immediately appreciate faster wide-area broadband. They're not listing dates just yet, so it's unclear just how soon we can expect these to light up.
Woohoo!
I can't wait to get a WiMAX mini-pcie card for my laptop. I hope the latency is low enough for MMOs and supreme commander / starcaft 2
@Smurf
its pretty dang good, at the sprint press booth you could play COD MW 2 on the overdrive with no lag problems
I still think these prices are too high. I wouldn't mind slow speeds (1.5Mbps) over WiMAX if it's at $30 a month. I don't need speeds faster than that.
@daftrok well you are not me, and I already get 5Mbps regularly over t-mobiles 3G I am waiting for the 21Mbps to hit this year althogh my n900 will max out at 10Mbps, to me any wireless tech that is not wide scale national coverage is not worth it, it needs backup 3G/2G services that will work outside of 4G areas which was my problem with XOHM in baltimore you left the city and you were SOL
@mmoylan
Um...you do know all of Sprint's 4G Wimax devices will fall back to 3G/2G when not in 4G coverage right?
@mmoylan My T-Mobile "3G" is still usually under 500 Kbps. :( Sometimes my T-Mobile EDGE is FASTER than their 3G.
I live in Michigan :/
@cwalters74 Yeah, I'm in warren.
It would be nice to have...just sayin.
Well AT&T can do 2G+3G at the same time! That's 5 whole G's!
@HotBBQ
Are you suggesting a commercial for at&t?
Hurry up Sprint, you said this a year ago! Oh, and the SF Bay Market INCLUDES THE SOUTH BAY. Don't pull an ATT!
@Valicore
Yeah, I am seriously hoping this comes to the south bay!
My work gives me FREE AT&T but if the HTC Supersonic comes out and the south bay gets WiMAX before AT&T gets an Android superphone... I might have to start paying for my own service and jump to sprint!
-Taylor
@Taylor Yes Taylor
You might want to check and see if your work (or if you belong to one of those crazy credit unions) will give you a discount. A TON of employers will give a 10-20% discount if you ask Sprint about it.
4G has been thrown around so loosely that standards have been set. To be considered 4G you must be able to deliver 100MB with that standard. If I remember correctly WiMax will only be able to reach 10.1MB. AT&T something like 7.2 and I think Verizon is looking at something like 5MB. While at this time T-Mo is at 7.2 and shooting for 21 by the end of the year while still calling it what it is 3G.
@jlaigo2 http://money.cnn.com/2010/02/23/technology/4g_networks/
@jlaigo2
4G hasn't technically been defined by IMT/CTIA at all. LTE included.
What you're referring to is one of the several criteria set forth by IMT that says future 4G technologies should do 100Mb/sec mobile. Neither LTE or 802.16e currently meet this requirement.
It's been assumed by the industry that both LTE-Advanced and Wimax 802.16m (aka Wimax2 or Wimax-M) will both be officially granted 4G status. I can't speak for LTE-Advanced as LTE hasn't even been fully locked down in it's implementation yet, but the current 802.16e Wimax should be backwards and forwards compatible with future 802.16m Wimax ala 802.11b vs. 802.11g Wifi.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4G
Why don't they just do us all a favor and adopt LTE instead like everyone else seems to be doing?
@jmaine
http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2010/02/17/wimax-growth-in-the-us-lags-worldwide-growth-explodes/
I'm in DC and I for one welcome our new 4G over lords. Ok, that out of the way, I have no way of arguing the sheer number of self described geeks in SF vs. NY vs. DC, I can certainly say that there are a large number of laptop and smartphone totting staffers and lobbyists running around the Hill, as well as lawyers, consultants, and young professionals in the down town areas. Whenever they roll it out in the district, it'll certainly be used and appreciated. Hmmm, I hope Sprint's reading this...
cant wait for it to come to Kansas City..plus Supersonic. and im due for upgrade!
@first name Greatest
WIN!
It's already in Kansas city at the sprint campus, although I can't officially back that up with paperwork.
Houston...nice!
Phoenix please.
@BeerGremlin
I'm curious as to why there isn't any 4G/wimax being announced for the 4th largest city in the US.
yay! Go sprint. Still waiting for the wimax signal to go on at my house n I live in DALLAS! Dammit wtf.
With Sprint goin' left when everyone else is goin' right, they had better hope Wimax catches on FAST!
@thaprinze Thats the goal i think.
Attract people and phones with having an established 4G network.
@thaprinze
http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2010/02/17/wimax-growth-in-the-us-lags-worldwide-growth-explodes/
Finally freakin DENVER. Time to replace my old Ovation U720 with that new Wimax portable router
Heard from a sprint store manager that our area is getting wimax starting in april.... hopefully its true because I want a wimax phone when I upgrade to windows phone 7.
+1 for Sprint finally showing Kansas City some love.
@Bradley
yea buddy
Palm is crashing and since I am optimistic today I will say this will lead to Sprint crashing, and in a few years I will be without webOS and cheap Sprint service. Hope I am wrong, but my choice in companies seems to be a jinx. :D
I've been getting lots of 4G in Houston for the last couple weeks with my overdrive (POS won't work over wifi), & Houston isn't even supposed to have it. I live in NYC so I'm hoping to start seeing some wimax love soon!!
What about good ol' Los Angeles? Americas 2nd biggest/richest ring a bell?
Houston towers are up and service will be starting (officially) in April via Clear. Clear is partnering with Sprint to provide 4G in many areas. I can't wait. 4G means speeds of up to 10MB/1MB for home and mobile. When you get both, the cost comes way down compared to any other service, with better mobile speeds than anyone can offer.
Coverage for clear: http://www.clear.com/coverage
If you are interested in selling this 4G wimax service in your area and making alot of money doing so, contact me at workatclear@gmail.com you can also check out www.thexfactorteam.info
Sonic Jones