Sprint joins WiMax Forum

Sprint today hinted that WiMax may have a place in its growing menu of wireless access technologies, announcing that it has become a member of the WiMax Forum.

Saying that WiMax is complimentary to Sprint's wireless data portfolio, the carrier became one of the largest carriers to sign on to the 802.16 standard, joining its future merger partner Nextel as the only two U.S. cellular carriers on the WiMax membership list.

"We support the forum's infrastructure goals," Sprint vice president of technical development said in a statement. "Standardization and certification will unlock significant opportunities for service providers and equipment-makers while bringing new high-speed connectivity benefits for our users. We are looking at WiMax solutions for a number of our future applications."

Sprint is in the process of deploying a nationwide CDMA 1X EV-DO network, which will give it broadband connectivity in its major markets. While WiMax's mobile iteration based on the IEEE 802.16e standard has been scrutinized as a possible competitor to 3G services like EV-DO, the forum has tried to position the technology as complimentary, a workhorse that can take the load off 3G networks in high traffic areas. One reason, Sprint may be thinking differently, however, is its recent decision to deploy Lucent Technologies' IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) core. IMS gives it the critical components to link its different access technologies. While Sprint so far has only discussed converging its Wi-Fi, cellular and wireline networks over a common core, WiMax could just as easily be added to the mix.