Sprint sees WiMAX as path back into fixed broadband

For more on Clearwire and Sprint’s WiMAX efforts, see Telephony’s Race to 4G topic page.

For Sprint, WiMAX represents a lot more than faster mobile data services. Todd Rowley, vice president of 4G for Sprint, said the carrier will use its relationship with Clearwire to get back into the local access business it left behind when it divested Embarq. Not only is the carrier planning to offer broadband access via WiMAX to homes and businesses, it is evaluating voice over IP and exploring using the wireless network as the back channel for femtocells.

“We want to make 4G a major initiative within the company,” Rowley said. “4G gives us the capabilities to actually start offering home services — voice and broadband services. We’ve seen a big trend of people cutting the cord at home. This allows us to make it a little easier.”

Currently Sprint offers only a single mobile device over the WiMAX network, a dual-mode CDMA/WiMAX laptop card made by Franklin Wireless. And that modem is available in just one market, Baltimore, the only network Sprint launched under the Xohm banner before it turned its WiMAX assets over to Clearwire. Due to back-end integration issues, Sprint can’t even offer the new data card over Clearwire’s second commercially launched network in Portland, though Rowley said that issue will be resolved shortly. But Clearwire plans to roll out networks in major markets this year — including Chicago, Atlanta, Las Vegas and Washington, D.C. So Sprint will be able to leverage its mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) agreement with Clearwire more fully, offering new mobile devices as well as residential and small business broadband services, Rowley said.

Sprint has identified four business models for using the WiMAX network, Rowley said:

• An extension of its mobile data service, using 3G/4G data cards, wireless-embedded laptops and eventually dual-mode handsets to offer faster broadband speeds to its growing base of mobile data customers.
• A 4G-only service, where WiMAX devices such as netbooks or laptops would use only the Clearwire service, though it would be marketed and billed under the Sprint name.
• A small-business broadband service, using gateway modems to link to the WiMAX network, which Sprint then could bundle with other business and mobile services.
• A residential broadband service, also using home gateways to bring broadband and other residential services into the home.

The last two business models would essentially give Sprint its first last-mile access since spinning off Embarq in 2006 after its acquisition of Nextel. Though WiMAX can’t deliver the raw capacity of newer fiber access and cable modem technologies, its bandwidth is theoretically on par with copper-based DSL, allowing Sprint to deliver many of the broadband services an incumbent telco could offer over a legacy network. Sprint already has VoIP services under evaluation, which it could use to deliver a home voice solution, Rowley said, but a fixed voice service could be just the beginning.