Sprint hands NYC WiMax over to Samsung
updated 02:45 pm EDT, Mon August 27, 2007
Sprint NYC WiMax
Samsung will be responsible for handling the Sprint WiMax presence in New York City, Reuters reports. Samsung has officially been given "lead vendor" status in New York, meaning it will see the bulk of profit from building and installing necessary radio hardware, as well as supplying phones and chipsets. No date for the availability of WiMax to subscribers has been set; the news remains significant, however, as Sprint's forthcoming XOHM service has only been announced for three cities to date: Baltimore, Chicago and Washington D.C.. The New York debut may coincide with the proper commercial service, beginning in Spring 2008.
WiMax is a so-called "4G" technology, enabling mobile broadband speeds up to 10Mbps. Sprint is hoping to establish a WiMax network across the United States, and to that end has already planned to spend as much as $5 billion on it by 2010. The network will be further broadened with the help of Clearwire, which has agreed to share the development burden.
