Sprint/Nextel Customers Hear About High Speed Advances

NEW YORK CITY — (AP) Sprint Nextel said it will use an emerging technology called WiMAX to build a new high-speed wireless network.

The company said the new network, expected to launch in some markets by late 2007, will provide customers with wireless Internet speeds on par with DSL and cable TV modems and four times faster than speeds available on current wireless networks.

Gary Forsee, Sprint’s CEO, said that Intel will be supplying equipment to build the network while Motorola and Samsung will develop WiMAX-compatible phones and mobile devices. Sprint expects to spend about $1 billion on the initiative in 2007, and between $1.5 billion and $2 billion in 2008.

Mr Forsee did not specify to what extent the other companies might help offset Sprint’s costs, saying those details will come later this year when Sprint provides financial guidance for 2007. The costly initiative was announced less than a week after the company, formed last summer by the merger of Sprint and Nextel Communications, reported a 38 percent drop in second-quarter profit.

The WiMAX plan also comes as Sprint is still rolling out its 3G cellular data network, which just last week the company said it planned to upgrade starting at the end of 2006.

In related news, baseball fans will soon be able to use their cell phones to take them out to the ballgame.

Sprint Nextel Corp reached an agreement with Major League Baseball Advanced Media, the sport’s Internet wing, to make audio of radio broadcasts available to its subscribers’ mobile phones for $5.99 a month.

 Under the deal, scheduled to be announced Wednesday, the local flagship station broadcasts will be available for all 30 teams for each game. The service will likely launch in mid-August, Sprint spokesman Dave Mellin said this week.

While Mr Mellin said Sprint had 45 million subscribers, the technology will be available only to those with Sprint PCS Vision and Power VisionSM phones. He did not have a figure on how many Sprint subscribers had handsets capable of receiving the baseball audio service.

“This is this generation’s version of the transistor radio,” Mr Mellin said.