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

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

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

Of course, Sprint Nextel would not have mastered this project alone. Its main partner is Intel , which spares no effort and money to promote the WiMax standard, to which it has very high expectations. Intel has already spent more than one billion dollars on it, and the partnership with Sprint Nextel is a logical development of Intel's policies.

In addition to Intel, other partners in the construction of a giant 4G-networks called the company Motorola and the 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, PDAs, etc. All this will be done by partners - Intel, Motorola and Samsung. For example, Intel will introduce a WiMax modem into the next-generation Centrino chipset, so WiMax support will appear by default in almost all modern laptops. Motorola will launch compatible mobile devices and take part in network deployment. Samsung also promises to make smartphones with support for mobile WiMax.

WiMax should become the standard technology for broadband wireless Internet access. WiMax specifications (IEEE 802. 16e-2005 ) is an open standard, the use of which does not require anyone to pay royalties, which fundamentally distinguishes it from all other competitive standards for broadband radio communications.