Sprint and Samsung Electronics Corporation Ltd. announced that a new broadband wireless network offering the speed and
mobility of WiMAX has met Sprint’s rigorous
commercial acceptance criteria including overall performance, handoff
performance and handoff delay. This key technical milestone has been
passed after extensive evaluation both in the XOHM lab environment and with the commercial service network being built in
the Baltimore and Washington D.C. area. Sprint plans on launching
commercial WiMAX service in those cities later this year.
Samsung has been working with Sprint in the United States to test and build Sprint’s
XOHM mobile broadband Internet service compliant to the mobile WiMAX
standard. Since finalizing a supply agreement in 2007, the two
companies have steadily made progress on the extensive project with
previous key milestones including first data session in the lab (June
2007), first data session on the live network (October 2007) and
successful interoperability testing with multiple other device vendors
(April 2008).
“This is a
major step towards launch readiness and Sprint is extremely pleased
with the performance of the mobile WiMAX network and access devices
from Samsung,” said Barry West, XOHM president. “The
collaboration with Samsung and our other partners has created a WiMAX
ecosystem that has now proven that it can deliver this new technology
to the marketplace well ahead of any feasible alternative.”
Last month, Samsung announced the introduction of several WiMAX-enabled
devices. The Express Card (E100 PC Card) and WiMAX embedded UMPC (Q1
Ultra Premium Mobile PC) underscore Samsung’s
position as the leading provider of end-to-end mobile WiMAX network
systems. With the technology proven to be ready, the Samsung mobile
WiMAX systems being deployed for Sprint in Baltimore and Washington
D.C. support the commercial introduction of XOHM service anticipated to
begin later this year.
“The
wireless subscribers in the United States are ready to step up to the
next level of a truly broadband wireless network that surpasses the
performance of existing wireless networks today,” said Dr. Hwan Chung, senior vice president of Samsung Telecommunications America. “Sprint’s acceptance of Samsung’s WiMAX technology shows Samsung’s strong commitment to meet our customers’ needs for the most reliable, seamless, and fastest wireless network. Samsung’s mobile WiMAX expertise will help Sprint answer the mobile broadband needs of U.S. wireless subscribers.” he added.
Samsung is the global leader in delivering mobile WiMAX technologies
and offers an end-to-end solution including chipsets, infrastructure,
mobile devices and consumer electronics, including devices capable of
accessing both mobile WiMAX and other wireless technologies.
The XOHM business unit within Sprint specifically focuses on developing
the WiMAX ecosystem and standards to bring the latest broadband
wireless technology to the U.S. marketplace. Sprint is utilizing the
significant spectrum holdings at 2.5 GHz that were combined in the
Sprint Nextel merger to deploy mobile WiMAX technology from Samsung and
other vendors.