Sprint hopeful to take WiMAX live in Chicago by end of 2009

We'd kill to understand the politics, technical issues, or combination thereof that are responsible for stopping Sprint from taking its long-completed Chicago WiMAX footprint live. Not only has the launch now missed its 2008 target window -- at this point, the company is merely saying that it's hopeful to launch the network "in the latter half of the year," where "year" is 2009. Meanwhile, Chicagoans are rife in 4G (or so Sprint and WiMAX's backers are billing it, anyhow) that they're unable to use, and if this all boils down to a delay due to a branding transition, that's a year of wheel-spinning buffoonery that Sprint and Clearwire really can't afford to waste -- especially with LTE pilot markets right around the corner.

[Thanks, David C.]

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 4th 2009 12:32PM]

End of 2009. Awesome.

Talk about a company who does not know what the heck they are doing. With the far superior LTE right around the corner, one would think they would be rushing to get the lead. As well as bringing out some dual EVDO/Wimax handsets and wireless cards. The mobile wimax launch has to be the worst rollout in history. FFS, Verizon is rolling out their physical (fiber in the ground) FIOS network faster than Wimax.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 4th 2009 3:02PM]

How LTE is "Far Superior"? other then having more cheerleaders what is an actual tangible advantage? Potentially continuing the use of QAM wouldn't seem to be, otherwise the underlying technologies are the same (S)OFDM/A.

Sprint however seems to be trying to manage its way to complete failure, turning every advantage against themselves. I wonder if they went to the same school of business management as the JournalSpace people?

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 4th 2009 6:57PM]

For a start it can deliver much faster speeds. Not to mention the coverage advantage. Mobile Wimax operates on a 2.5ghz frequency, therefore the range per tower is quite limited. Whereas LTE will operate on 700mhz so the coverage advantage alone is huge. Let alone all of the other existing frequencies it will take over.

Sprint had a chance to get a lead on Verizon / AT&T (LTE) by basically pulling a 360 over the ps3. That is, launch a national 4G network which is compatible with their EVDO network yet faster than the competitors network. This would have given them a 2 to 4 year advantage. I realized how intelligent their management team was when they decided Baltimore out of all places should be the launch city. Then on top of that they have comcast and Time warner (part owners) making decisions on the wimax network. Two companies who are only around because of their monopoly in various markets.

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 5th 2009 5:22AM]

actually this the 1st phase of wimax, WiMAX 802.16m will operate @ 1Gbps

[(Unverified) Posted Jan 5th 2009 5:33AM]

Actually the spectrum comparison between WiMAX and LTE is flawed. Both technologies are similar in so many ways, WiMAX is a more real technology in the sense that commercial products are available when compared to LTE.
Today its established that WiMAX is primarily running in the 2.5GHz and 3.5GHz bands, meanwhile LTE is still not as decided and looks like most LTE operators will either utilize the 2.5GHz band or refarm their 900MHz spectrum.
Having said that, its true that low frequency bands such as the 900MHz or the newly opened 700MHz offer better RF propagation but in the same time these band are limited in the number of available carriers, GSM900 carrier is 200kHz while LTE is looking at carriers of 10MHz and 20MHz to deliver the promised high throughput. 3G had to be moved up to the 2.1GHz for similar reasons.
From other points of view, both LTE and WiMAX adopt OFDMA which has better spectral efficiency and an all-IP architecture which means that an upgrade from 3G to LTE is as complicated as from 3G to WiMAX, it remains to see if WiMAX gathers enough supporter from equipment manufacturers which today is a losing struggle for WiMAX.