RESTON, Va., Aug. 8 (UPI) -- Sprint Nextel Corp. will spend upwards of $3 billion to create a fourth generation broadband mobile network across the United States.
The 4G wireless data network will use a technology known as Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access, or WiMax for short, Sprint said Tuesday.
WiMax is a long-range version of the popular Wi-Fi technology now available in airports, hotels and coffee shops around the United States. Whereas a PC with a wireless card or a cell phone can detect a Wi-Fi signal 100 feet or so away, such devices, if properly equipped, could detect a WiMax signal as far away as five miles. Such power makes WiMax a potential alternative to cable and DSL.
That technology was developed by Intel Corp. Motorola Inc. and South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co., which already has deployed WiMax in South Korea, will supply WiMax equipment for Sprint.
Sprint Nextel is expecting to invest $1 billion in 2007 and between $1.5 billion and $2 billion in 2008 on the venture.
The company envisions trial markets by the end of next year and then in 2008 a network that reaches as many as 100 million people.
