Well, what do we have here? One of our readers sent us a screenshot from Sprint's Sales Portal that included the above roadmap for its
WiMAX rollout this year. A number of the yet-to-be-launched cities we've already heard about --
Chicago, Philadelphia, Dallas, and Charlotte -- but to the best of our knowledge, the rest of them are brand new entries. Additionally, Baltimore residents can look forward to some sort of coverage update in the fourth quarter. We'd be lying if we said we weren't jealous that Salem (population 3,000) and Milledgeville (population 19,000) are getting the wireless network before most of us on staff, but the service has to start somewhere, right? No indication here of 2010 plans, but
last we heard that included Boston, Houston, New York, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.
Update: As tipster Carlos points out, Clearwire's website already has some
coverage maps for some of the cities listed in the third quarter, as well as some markets not listed here.
posted Aug 1st 2009 3:47PM
not to call this whole thing out as fake - but it's Boise, ID not Boise, IA
Yeah i am there with you, and i live in iowa. if any town is getting Wimax i am saying Des Moines, IA. had me scratching my head for a minute.
i think this is a fake or the big S needs to fire some peops who don't know jack about US geography. Boise, IA
By the time they have any compelling 4G devices, they'll have to compete with LTE ... good luck there.
Their WiMAX equipment should be able to switch over to LTE fairly easily. (I believe a Sprint executive said that.) I myself think LTE is the future - here's hoping their WiMAX tests fail!
And still nothing announced for Michigan. Like Detroit or Grand Rapids? Hello. We always get the short end of the stick. Another major city left out of these announcements is L.A. You know, only the second largest city in the country. Why are they focusing on such medium-sized cities first instead of the major ones? Weird.
It's likely they're choosing markets with a large number of Sprint customers. Even if Salem has a 3,000 population, what if 50% (unlikely, I know; I'm just pulling numbers out of my ass) of that were Sprint customers? And maybe 25% have a smartphone? That's a perfect test market - relatively small amount of customers, but good enough to test the network and equipment out.
what about phoenix, AZ 5th largest city. Sprint is really good in the southwest region they should provide more cities on the southwest with wimax, like L.A, CA 2nd largest in US, Houston, TX 4th largest and Phoenix, AZ 5th largest at least they got las vegas and some big texas cities but we need some in CA and AZ
Pick me
Oh Sprint, way to drop the ball again.. Im near Detroit and it will be one of the first cities to have VZW LTE.
It's going to be more than just Detroit that get VZW's LTE. Even rural areas of the state and country will be getting it pretty quickly. I don't even think AT&T will have 3G in my area of Michigan by the time VZW gets LTE here.
I think they are all NASCAR cities.
I don't get most of the rollout cities. Wimax is an expensive wireless broadband service targeted to businessmen on the move -- it's not a residential service (yet). So why aren't the Tier 1 business metros (NYC, LA, Chicago, Wash DC, Boston) first on the list ?! They don't even hit Chicago till Q4 maybe. Bizarre.
Kansas City should be one of the first ones. It's their hometown.
Gotta chime in with the "fake" tag too. Posting this in Portland on WiMax right now, had the service for a couple of months right now. I'm confusedededed.
Seriously... No California at all?
No love for FL? wtf
Maybe its something to do with all the grants the government is offering for rural cities? maybe to help the rollout? plus sprint will be selling home routers and all to so maybe they are attacking home markets? all speculation just my thoughts
Can Houston get some 4G love?????
Where the heck is Boise, IA? Come on - it's the home of CradlePoint, Micron, ExistingLight and Independent Connect! - and it's in IDAHO...
Looking forward to the 'Love' and to upgrading the firmware of my Cradlepoint Router when the day comes!
(db)
Aren't those coverage maps what is 'EXISTING'??? It's not telling you what gonna get the 4G - it's telling you what the area has.
Grand Rapids, MI
We have no good internet at all!
And with my sprint service that would be a great plus!
I have the U300 modem and it seems like Chicago is all set, they just need to enable it. When you launch the SmartView connection app, it says "Ready to connect to 4G". You can even see the signal strength change as you move around. Obviously it fails if you try to connect but it sure seems like the infrastructure is there.