Welcome Xohm: Sprint's WiMAX service gets name, $5 billion price tag

[Alex]

Sprint Nextel has given its upcoming WiMAX service (http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070109-8582.html) a name and a web site (http://www.xohm.com/) (which will teach you how to pronounce "Xohm"). Sprint will launch (http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070327-2008-wimax-rollout-scheduled-for-chicago-indy-denver-and-more.html) the service in Chicago and Baltimore by year end, with a nationwide launch coming in spring 2008. The company said that it could ultimately spend $5 billion on Xohm by the end of the decade.

The company has taken some heat from the financial community over Xohm's price tag, but Sprint is also optimistic over the potential for WiMAX. Sprint expects that the new service will bring in between $2.0 billion and $2.5 billion in revenues for fiscal year 2010 and that most of that growth will come from new lines of business. As a result, Xohm should be cashflow-positive starting in 2011.

Part of Sprint's optimism about Xohm comes from commitments from hardware makers to embed over 50 million WiMAX chipsets in devices, including laptops and PCMCIA cards. The cellular provider has been in discussions with Intel over WiMAX support, with an eye towards incorporating support for the tech in future mobile chipsets.
Intel has plans for WiMAX support in its upcoming Montevina chipset, the successor to the Santa Rosa chipset (a.k.a. the Centrino Duo) released earlier this year. At the Beijing Intel Developer Forum last April, Intel said that it was on track to deliver (http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070416-wimax-coming-to-intel-laptops-in-2008.html) Montevina some time during the first half of 2008.

Sprint has high hopes for Montevina, as it hopes that a large number of Xohm subscribers will be able to access the network without help from PCMCIA cards. But in order for that to occur, Montevina will have to take the laptop market by storm. That's not going to happen in the enterprise anytime soon, as corporate IT purchase cycles are likely to make for slower uptake than Sprint would like.

Having Google on board (http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070726-google-to-offer-internet-portal-for-sprints-wimax-network.html) may also boost Xohm's prospects. Google will create an Internet portal for the service which will give users easy access to Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Talk, and other Google-icious goodies. Pricing and data speeds have not yet been disclosed, but the speeds are likely to be in the 1.5-3.0Mbps range and cost around $50 per month.

SOURCE: Ars Technica

[Matt]

Sprint spending again. They need to fix there CS issues first.

[kinjutsu11]

Sprint spending again. They need to fix there CS issues first.

No, they'll just drop you from their service, its easier that way, hahaha. Can you believe they dropped 1200 customer for excessive complaints? If that doesn't tell you what kind of a company Sprint is, I don't know what will.

[Matt]

Oh yeah. I heard all about it over at sprintusers.com

[PortPowerKS]

Maybe if my aunt starts griping to Sprint CS, she can get booted from them and switch over to T-Mobile..? =D

[greenblood]

Maybe if my aunt starts griping to Sprint CS, she can get booted from them and swicth over to T-Mobile..? =D

she should get T-Mobile togo first, make sure she is happy with coverage
then she can play the trick (call CS 100 times a day for the phone don't have reception):hititsmiley:

[greenblood]

Sprint spent too much money on technology
except they utilize VoIP over WiMax, they have nothing to do voice on it
T3 is coming in 8-10 weeks in NYC, can't wait.....

[christyxcore]

It's a shame that Sprint sucks too much to really care about their new services :|

[kinjutsu11]

Sprint spent too much money on technology
except they utilize VoIP over WiMax, they have nothing to do voice on it
T3 is coming in 8-10 weeks in NYC, can't wait.....

T3=you iteration of T-Mobile's 3G correct, don't wanna get confused myself that why i ask, lol :D

[greenblood]

Wirelessly posted (Dell X50v and/or SE K790a: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 4.01; Windows CE; PPC; 240x320))

I don't know, T3 is alot more easier to name T-Mobile 3G

[cwilliams706]

Sprint says WiMax on track for end of April
Next-generation high-speed wireless network is commercially untested

By Sinead Carew
updated 52 minutes ago

LAS VEGAS - Sprint Nextel Corp. is on track to launch commercial services for its next-generation WiMax high-speed wireless network at the end of April, Chief Technology Officer Barry West said on Tuesday.

Speaking on a WiMax panel at the Consumer Electronics Show, West said Sprint would sell the service at reasonable rates with options including per day, week or month, as well as longer term contracts.

But unlike typical phone services, Sprint does not plan to subsidize WiMax devices for customers.

"People will be excited about our rates. They won't be ecstatic about them because we're not going to give it away," said West. WiMax service fees could also be included in the purchase price of devices, such as WiMax-enabled cameras.

Asked about the risks of introducing services based on a commercially untested technology during an economic downturn, West said he was not concerned and had not seen any signs of a pullback in electronics spending so far.

"I really don't see it," West said in an interview with Reuters. "The fourth quarter for the consumer electronics industry ... was different, but it wasn't bad."

Sprint hopes WiMax will help the No. 3 U.S. mobile service stand out from the competitors it has been losing ground to, including AT&T Inc. and Verizon Wireless, owned by Verizon Communications Inc. and Vodafone Group Plc.

West said he is talking to operators developing WiMax services around the world to set up roaming agreements that make it easier for customers to use their devices abroad.

"Roaming will be much more like the Wi-Fi world than it will be in the world of cellular phones," he said.

Wi-Fi, a shorter range predecessor of WiMax, is mostly used in laptops today and is commonly available in coffee shops and other public places around the world.

Sprint plans to offer only a data card for laptops and a modem for desktop computers when it kicks off the service, and has no immediate plans to sell phones that include the technology, West said. Other devices will be sold through electronics retailers rather than Sprint, he said.

West said he expects up to 10 WiMax devices to be available at the time Sprint launches its service. One of them is a Web browsing device that Nokia plans to sell.

Fred Wright, a senior vice president for Motorola Inc.'s wireless network equipment unit, said his company would have a multimedia wireless device ready for the market at the end of the third quarter or start of the fourth quarter. The device would support voice but calling would not be its main feature, Wright said.

West also said a Korean company that he declined to name would start to sell a dedicated gaming device for WiMax in the first quarter of 2009.

Sprint plans to kick off commercial services in the three markets which have been testing the technology since December: Baltimore, Washington, DC and Chicago.

He would not comment beyond the initial plans as new Sprint Chief Executive Dan Hesse is reviewing future plans amid criticism over the previously announced plan to spend $5 billion on the WiMax network by 2010.

Sprint's initial technology suppliers for the service include Nokia, Samsung Electronics, Motorola and Nokia Siemens, a joint venture of Nokia and German network equipment maker Siemens AG. Chip maker Intel Corp. is also a big promoter of WiMax.

Sprint says WiMax on track for end of April - CES 2008 - MSNBC.com (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22562752/)

[Alex]

I wonder if they will ever launch it...they remind me of T-Mobile's pr launch of their 3g network

[cwilliams706]

I'm interested in learning how their handsets (current and future) will operate with Xohm. I can't get past relating WiMax with the same signal my Wireless N router emits, just that Xohm will be faster.