In America, create a national WiMax network worth $ 3 billion

Mobile operator Sprint Nextel has announced the construction of a WiMax network, which will cover almost the entire US territory and cost $ 3 billion. This is the world's first 4G network of such a gigantic size.

According to the plan, the first WiMax pilot tests are scheduled for the end of 2007, and the commercial operation of the network, accessible for at least 100 million people, will begin in 2008. After that, the network will be systematically expanded. The volume of investments in the project amounts to $ 1 billion in 2007 and $ 1, 5-2 billion in 2008.

WiMax transmitters will be installed on existing Sprint Nextel towers. They cover the territory where 85% of the American population lives - this is the maximum coverage among all American cellular operators. By the way, twenty years ago, Sprint was the first in America to deploy a fiber-optic communications network nationwide, that is, it already has innovation experience.

Of course, Sprint Nextel would not have mastered this project alone. Its main partner is Intel , which does not spare forces and means to promote the WiMax standard, on which it places very high hopes. Intel has spent more than one billion dollars on it, and the partnership with Sprint Nextel is a logical development of Intel’s policies.
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In addition to Intel, other partners in the construction of a giant 4G network are Motorola and Samsung . The project involves not only the construction of base stations, but also the release of affordable mobile devices with built-in WiMax chipsets: phones, laptops, handheld computers, etc. All this will take partners - Intel, Motorola and Samsung. For example, Intel will introduce a WiMax modem into the Centrino chipset of the next generation, so WiMax support will appear by default in almost all modern laptops. Motorola will release compatible mobile devices and will also participate in network deployment. Samsung, too, promises to make communicators with support for mobile WiMax.

WiMax should be the standard technology for broadband wireless Internet access. The WiMax specifications (IEEE 802. 16e-2005 ) are an open standard, for the use of which no license fees need be paid to anyone, which fundamentally distinguishes it from all other competitive broadband radio standards.