Sprint/Nextel announce Wimax network plan for late 2007

Sprint/Nextel will rollout a Wimax network with peak communication speed of 20 mbps but with real world speed of 1-4 mbps. They expect to spend $3 billion and go live late in 2007. The company will use its existing 2.5GHz spectrum, half of which it acquired from the merger with Nextel, to deliver the new service. The service will be three to ten times faster than current generation EV-DO. They and supplying companies (like Intel, motorola, Samsung) claim the chipsets that will be used in the devices and to build the infrastructure equipment will cost about a 10th the price of existing 3G chipsets. Sprint plans to upgrade its EV-DO system to EV-DO-A.