Sprint commits to WiMAX despite CEO shuffle
updated 04:05 pm EDT, Tue October 23, 2007
Sprint Commits to WiMAX
Sprint is still intent on releasing its Xohm WiMAX service despite a change in top management, the company's acting chief executive Paul Saleh told USA Today. Although the open nature of the upcoming 4G service had often been seen as the brainchild of recently departed chief Gary Forsee, Saleh vowed that the company would not fall back to a traditional American cellphone strategy of locking down the service. An open platform where any device and any program would work was the inevitable "future" of cellular Internet access, he said.
"This is where the market is going," Saleh noted.
Previous rumors had suggested that Forsee's imposed departure from Sprint was directly related to a conservative move by the rest of the wireless carrier's directors, who would purportedly have insisted on more typical cellphone technology and carrier-exclusive devices. The now-confirmed existing plan will see Sprint share resources with WiMAX provider Clearwire to establish a US-wide 4G network.
