That’s the message relayed by Reuters this morning. According to the latest noise on the matter, Sprint CTO Barry West was out on the CES stage this week saying some upbeat things about the company’s technological future. One of the things he mentioned: Sprint’s WiMAX network would have its first limited launch in several locations across US at the end of April.
What do we say to that? About time.
Though a WiMAX network has been something we here in the States have long yearned for, many have felt such a thing would never come to be. Well, cheer up, guys. We can confidently say that the technology is going to have its first introduction within the space of four months.
That’s certainly an exciting prospect. Eminently useful high-speed wireless access to the Web has so far only been available to those in America using devices which adhere to the 802.11a/b/g/n protocols; and when dealing with such components, one is typically limited to travel roughly 100 feet from any given access point. A very unsatisfying reality, you might say.
WiMAX, on the other hand, will allow for the transmission of large quantities of data across great distances. Distances more or less equal to parameters modern cellular telephony networks are able to function within. Distances we can truly appreciate.
Of course, WiMAX will only be a worthwhile platform for businesses and consumers to adopt and drive into the mainstream if Sprint, its main proponent in the US, follows through with a complete nationwide rollout. If not, it simply isn’t worth much further news coverage or discussion.
But chances are Sprint will go “all the way” with the initiative. The company, currently at a relatively low point in its history, has already pledged roughly $5bn to get the first pieces of the need infrastructure in place – however scattered and piecemeal it may seem at present – in order to proceed with its first trials scheduled later this year. To abandon the project now would hardly be in its financial favor; it would place the operator in rather dire straights for sure.