Sprint sees WiMAX as path back into fixed broadband

WiMAX could power femtocells

One of the other possibilities Sprint is exploring is attaching a femtocell to the end of a home WiMAX connection, which could not only amplify WiMAX capacity to 4G devices in the home or business but serve as a backhaul link for 2G and 3G traffic.

Sprint was the first operator to commercially launch femtocells in the U.S., followed by Verizon and AT&T last month. Unlike its competitors, which can sell the broadband connection along with the femtocell, Sprint’s customers have to get their broadband from another provider, a liability in a world in which broadband, voice and wireless are increasingly bundled into a single package. On the other hand, Sprint doesn’t have an established customer base of wireline voice users to cannibalize. If it were to offer a femtocell backhauled to its CDMA core network via WiMAX, Sprint could do away with the notion of the “home phone” entirely, instead selling plans that offer unlimited or highly discounted minutes when used over the femtocell connection. Sprint’s current Samsung-designed Airave solution already sells unlimited domestic voice plans to individuals for $10 a month and families for $20 a month.

“A home femtocell solution is absolutely something we are considering, though we’re really only in the evaluation stages right now,” Rowley said.

Any WiMAX femtocell could be combined with a WiMAX broadband gateway, connecting to either a wireless or wired home network. But it also could be used to backhaul WiMAX traffic. WiMAX devices such as Sprint’s new dual-mode wireless card could use the femtocell almost as a home repeater, boosting the relatively weak signal of the mobile device over the wide-area WiMAX network, resulting in both higher overall capacity and power savings at the device.

As for the devices themselves, Rowley expects a greater variety of WiMAX-embedded computers, handsets and eventually embedded consumer electronics to emerge as Clearwire’s network rolls out. Clearwire has already secured commitments from many of the world’s top PC makers to ship laptops containing Intel’s WiMAX solution. Many of those same PC manufacturers already make 3G laptops with CDMA EV-DO radios. When those manufacturers start combining the two radios in a single device, Sprint will begin carrying them, Rowley said. Beyond laptops, Rowley is counting on the WiMAX ecosystem to embrace the growing netbook market and eventually support the consumer electronics market, which could see WiMAX embedded into everyday gadgets such as portable music players and digital cameras.