14 Ara 2008

Sprint Decides to Dump XOHM, Adopt Sprint 4G

Sprint Decides to Dump XOHM, Adopt Sprint 4G

By Michael Kwan

Hang on. Before you start to freak out, it's not like Sprint is going to get rid of its freshly launched XOHM high-speed cellular network just yet, but it is going to undergo a couple of changes. We were teased with the possibility of Sprint's XOHM service for so long and endured so many delays, so it will be sad to see it go.

The WiMAX service will continue to be offered, but it seems that Sprint is getting a less than desirable reaction to XOHM. Maybe it's because we have all these negative associations related to the long line of delays. In this way, the new name of the network will be the much more descriptive Sprint 4G.

Furthermore, it seems that Sprint 4G will operate somewhat separately from the main Sprint brand, being sold as an MVNO on Clearwire's Clear WiMAX network. Sprint owns a 51% interest in that network. Subscribers to the Sprint 4G MVNO service will be offered a dual-mode CDMA/mobile WiMAX modem. This way, if you find yourself out of reach of the 4G network, you can still fall back to a slower connection. The modem, which will launch later this year (in the next three weeks?), is built at Motorola.

Next year will bring further expansion to the Sprint 4G portfolio, including both cell phones and modems that can take advantage of the 4G WiMAX network. If you thought blazing along a 3G connection on your smartphone was fast now, wait until you get to experience 4G speeds on a similar smartphone.

1 yorum:

Adsız dedi ki...

XOHM is really being merged with Clearwire. So all the XOHM customers are becoming Clearwire customers.
Sprint's 4G is nothing more than riding on the same infrastructure that now belongs to Clearwire.