dailywireless.org » Sprint’s New Phones

Sprint’s New Phones

Sprint’s press conference yesterday, unveiled Xohm, the new WiMAX service. But Sprint also announced new phones that will extend Nextel’s walkie-talkie-like service. Sprint plans to introduce several new Nextel Direct Connect handsets in early 2008.

Sprint acquired Nextel in 2005, and adopted the “Walkie Talkie” designation for its PTT offerings. Future CDMA-based phones using the EVDO network were also displayed.

Sprint’s Technology Summit had a room full of upcoming phones and PDAs for the rest of 2007, reports Gearlog. They include:

Samsung’s new Mobile WiMAX devices include the SPH-P9000 and SPH-M8100. The P9000 is a true Mobile WiMAX convergence device, which enables wireless broadband access and voice communications, while the M8100 is the first commercially available Mobile WiMAX PDA device.
The CTR350 creates a Secure WiFi Hotspot from broadband-enabled cellular phones and modems. The 802.11b/g router can use a phone-as-modem and also works with Cellular USB modems.
The $149 WiFi box works with Sprint, Verizon and AT&T cellular modems. No software installation required and the unit can also link via a standard Ethernet cable connection when available.

A built-in firewall with WEP and WPA encryption and secure chat allows you or your group to work securely while protecting your bandwidth. It charges a handset via USB or powers a USB modem. You can position the phone and unit for best cellular reception and use your laptop anywhere nearby.
The Palm Centro, aka the “Gandolf” or “Treo 800″ is a tiny Treo running Palm OS, the first truly new Treo form factor in years. It includes EVDO, but rumor has it that the gadget will sell for only $99 with contract when it pops onto the market this fall. Sprint will have a 90-day exclusive on the new Treo.
The HTC Touch is a keyboard-less Windows Mobile 6 phone with a special HTC-developed interface that lets you swipe your thumb up and down the screen to pop up application menus of big buttons, says GearLog. On the Sprint device, one of those menus is messaging - IM, communications manager, SMS, software store and mailbox - and the other is media - Sprint TV, Music Player, and Music Store.
The Sprint Airave home cell site, once known as the Samsung Ubicell, is about the size of your standard Wi-Fi router. Plug it into your home broadband connection and you get your very own Sprint cell site, covering up to 5,000 square feet. The Airave can handle three calls at a time, or 1XRTT data. You can leave it open to all passing Sprint customers or give Sprint a list of up to 50 phones that can exclusively use your cell.
Sprint will charge monthly for the Airave, but will offer unlimited calling on the cell for the monthly price - so it’s like T-Mobile’s Hotspot@Home in that way. Also like Hotspot@Home, you can take the Airave on trips with you, but alas, only within the US: legal restrictions prevent Sprint from allowing it to work outside the USA. Sprint didn’t have a precise price or launch date for the Airave, but they said it would be “competitive.”

The Washington Post has an interview with Sprint CTO Barry West.

Today you also unveiled a new walkie-talkie service called Nextel Direct Connect that is designed to bridge the two networks. How will that be affected by past problems with the Nextel service?
I think this is a big day for us, being able to show push-to-talk on [Sprint's] platform with the same performance as the [Nextel] network. It’s no small feat.
Why did you decide to use the Nextel brand, even after problems with Nextel network? Was there a concern that the perception of past problems would carry over?
No. Trying to do it the other way and produce a new push-to-talk brand would be really heavy lifting. Nextel is a verb, particularly in landscaping and construction industries. . . . This is absolutely the best way to secure that base of customers for a long time to come.
What is Sprint doing to invest in its current network?
This year we spent between $6-and-$7-billion on our current network. A lot of that has been in preparation of the retune of the Nextel network. But a lot of it was to increase our coverage. Obviously coverage is one of those things we have to keep investing in. As we become more successful with our customers, we have to invest in capacity. But the [WiMax] network inherently has so much capacity that we’re not going to have to invest in capacity for a number of years.
Why did Sprint choose WiMax for its next-generation network?
We spent a lot of time researching the technologies. . . . I’ve always insisted that my technology team not become religious about technology. . . . You have to go for what delivers the best experience at the lowest cost so you can deliver value to your shareholders. . . . We looked at which technology would give us a global ecosystem that would support a new business model. That’s the most important thing about Xohm. It’s a new business model.

Both Sprint and Clearwire had to come up with a so-called “ingredient” brand, recognizable across both networks, says the Seattle Times. Xohm will be that link, most likely phrased as “Xohm from Sprint,” and “Clearwire, powered by Xohm.”

“Whether customers are on Sprint’s network or in Clearwire’s territory, they’ll know they can get the same type of service,” said Helen Chung, a Clearwire spokeswoman.

Sprint Nextel Corp stands to lose $2 billion if a court bars Qualcomm from making their chips, Qualcomm executives told District Judge James Selna in California, Thursday. A jury found in May that Qualcomm infringed the patents, including one related to walkie-talkie technology Sprint plans to put in phones in the first quarter of 2008, known as QChat.

QChat delivers walkie-talkie services over EV-DO Rev A, as well as Nextel’s iDEN Network and is key to a plan for moving customers from Nextel’s Push-To-Talk network. In a separate interview with Reuters, Sprint’s CEO did not rule out the possibility of an agreement with Broadcom.

At NXTcomm 2007, Xchange Magazine talked to a variety of CTOs about network evolution (videos).