Sprint will roll out “Xohm” Thursday (xohm.com). XOHM is the new name for Sprint’s WiMax service, reports Computer World. Sprint says XOHM commercial services will be available beginning in the first half of 2008 with a soft launch in the Chicago and Baltimore/Washington markets by the end of 2007.
“We are pursuing a new business model that is Internet-based, not telecom-based, and therefore will establish a new service brand”, said Sprint spokesman John Polivka.
Polivka said the name Xohm rhymes with “home,” started with a “Z” sound. “It is a product of extensive research,” he added. “The X-factor makes it cool, research says.”Polivka said Sprint’s pact with Google Inc., announced in July, to collaborate on Internet services over the new WiMax network “is a significant proof point of [our] Internet strategy, and it is our intent to be not just a portal, but a destination as we mobilize the Internet.”
Sprint expects the WiMAX buildout to reach 100 million people by the end of 2008 with Sprint providing coverage to 70 million and Clearwire to 30 million people. Sprint’s coverage is expected to grow to approximately 125 million people by the end of 2010. At that level of buildout, the potential market would include an estimated 48 million U.S. households, nearly 5 million small office/home office subscribers, and more than 130 million consumer electronics devices. It expects revenue of $2 billion to $2.5 billion from the network in 2010.
Here’s an in-house video featuring Atish Gude, Sprint’s senior VP of mobile broadband operations, and Barry West, Sprint’s CTO.
Sprint and Google are collaborating on WiMAX services and will partner with Clearwire to accelerate the U.S. deployment, allowing Sprint to share the investment in a nationwide network.
Sprint Nextel has stipulated to its major suppliers; Samsung, Motorola and Nokia Siemens, that it wants Wave 2 smart antenna capabilities for its network, but Wave 2 Certification won’t come until the end of the year — at the earliest. Wave 2 supports MIMO and beamforming. Chips like Sequans SQN1130 are anticipated to be used in a variety of handsets and client cards by the time commercial operation begins around April of 2008.
Sprint executives said they expect their WiMax network to provide speeds at three to four times that of 3G wireless networks, somewhere in the range of 2Mbps to 4Mbps. “I’m expecting a lot of it to be embedded by 2010,” said Sprint wireless-broadband executive Barry West. He expects most computer access to WiMax will be from computers with embedded WiMax rather than laptops using separate wireless modems. Sprint is in talks with Intel to develop devices with embedded chips.
Sprint also announced updated financial targets for its WiMAX business, reflecting final execution of the agreement with Clearwire:
- The company expects to generate between $2B and $2.5B in revenues for the fiscal year 2010 with more than 80% generated from new lines of business.
- The company expects that the WiMAX initiative will be positive for Operating Income Before Depreciation and Amortization (OIBDA) in 2010.
- Sprint Nextel expects to invest approximately $2.5 billion in capital for WiMAX through year-end 2008. Beyond 2008, network build is expected to be increasingly success-based. The company currently expects that extending its coverage to approximately 125 million people by year-end 2010 would require an additional capital expenditure of approximately $2.5 billion.
- The WiMAX initiative is expected to generate positive Free Cash Flow beginning in 2011 as the annual OIBDA contribution is expected to exceed capital expenditures, working capital and other cash requirements.
Sprint and Clearwire can field 120 MHz of WiMAX spectrum between them across the United States. Barry West, Sprint’s CTO said the 700 MHz band has better propagation, but 2.5 GHz spectrum has more capacity. While initially it takes two to three times as many cell sites to be deployed for initial coverage at 2.5 GHz compared to 700 MHz, 10 to 15 sites are required at 700 MHz for the same capacity as one Sprint Nextel WiMAX site at 2.5 GHz.
Sprint will have 100 million covered by the end of 2008 and be in 35 markets,” said Sprint’s Barry West earlier this year. “We’re soft launching in Washington and Chicago in December and launching commercially in April of 2008.” The Sprint WiMAX mobile broadband network covers 85 percent of the households in the top 100 U.S. markets.
Clearwire’s WiMAX network currently covers approximately 11.6 million people in 43 domestic and international markets with 299,000 total subscribers.
To support roaming, Sprint and Clearwire need to support a compatible architecture. The topology includes the Access Service Network (ASN) and a Connectivity Service Network (CSN).
Clearwire hired Los Angeles-based Omnicom Group’s DDB as its new advertising agency.
In a separate release this Thursday, the company provided an update on its progress in delivering high-performance push-to-talk service, Nextel Direct Connect, on its CDMA network platform. Sprint demonstrated their Direct Connect providing push-to-talk service between devices on the CDMA network and between devices on the CDMA and iDEN networks. Sprint plans to introduce several new Nextel Direct Connect handsets in early 2008.
Related Clearwire articles on DailyWireless include; Clearwire & Sprint Agree on WiMAX Roaming, Clearwire & SatTV Do a Deal, Sprint’s WiMAX Cities, Nortel: WiMAX Train Leaving Station, Clearwire Operational in Hillsboro, Clearwire Gets Carded, Sprint’s Barry West and Clearwire’s Benjamin Wolff, FCC Rules on 700MHz: Limited Open Access, No Wholesale Requirement.
