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Well folks, Sprint is not pulling out from its WiMAX plans. As a matter of fact, the carrier is on track to launch its high-speed wireless network at the end of April. And best of all, once launched – it shouldn’t be that expensive for the end-user to get online via WiMAX. According to Sprint’s CTO Barry West, “people will be excited about our rates. They won’t be ecstatic about them because we’re not going to give it away.” But he also added that the service fees could be included in the purchase price of devices, which is kinda cool.
In the meantime at the CES, Sprint is promoting its Xohm WiMAX brand and has announced service, device, and advertising agency agreements. Among the companies involved are such names as Amdocs, SwapDrive, McAfee, OQO, ASUSTek, and Zyxel… Full release follows after the jump.
PRESS RELEASE – Demonstrating continuing progress with its next-generation wireless network initiative, Sprint today announced new Xohm mobile Internet business agreements involving web portal services and WiMAX network access devices. The company also named an advertising agency of record to help launch the Xohm brand in the United States.
A soft launch of Xohm mobile Internet service is underway with employees in Chicago, Baltimore and Washington, D.C., in preparation for commercial WiMAX service launch beginning later this year in select U.S. cities.
“Sprint is delivering on its Open Internet vision with exciting and differentiated WiMAX services,” explained Barry West, president of Sprint’s Xohm business unit. “The new service agreements and device commitments will help Xohm subscribers access, enjoy, store and secure personal digital and user-generated content while experiencing new device innovation.”
Sprint is exhibiting Xohm WiMAX applications, access devices and showing WiMAX broadband technical demonstrations during the 2008 International CES show in Las Vegas at booth # 31561, South Hall, in the Las Vegas Convention Center. The company plans to enhance and safeguard the Xohm personal broadband experience as it expands its WiMAX services ecosystem.
Xohm Portal services partnerships
Amdocs of St. Louis, Mo., the leading provider of customer experience systems, has been awarded a multi-year agreement for software and services in support of the launch and operations of Xohm mobile Internet. This includes building and maintaining the Xohm Internet portal, customer relationship management, service activation and provisioning, and billing operations.
SwapDrive of Washington D.C., a leading provider of online data backup, access and sharing services, is providing a hosted storage solution where Xohm subscribers can secure, organize, manage and access all their user-generated digital content though the Xohm portal from any device with a supported browser.
eTelecare Global Solutions of Scottsdale, Ariz., a leading provider of complex business process outsourcing (BPO) solutions, is providing voice and e-support customer care services.
McAfee Inc. of Santa Clara, Calif., the leading dedicated security technology company, will implement online security products for PCs used on the Xohm WiMAX network.
WiMAX embedded device momentum
OQO of San Francisco, an industry pioneer in mobile personal computing, intends to embed WiMAX wireless capability in an ultra mobile PC (UMPC) in 2008.
ASUSTek of Taiwan, a leading provider of 3C (computer, communications, consumer electronics) total solutions, plans to produce a line of WiMAX-embedded devices for availability during 2008.
Zyxel Inc. of Anaheim, Calif. and chip supplier Sequans have announced a collaboration to produce a WiMAX modem subscriber device for mobile Internet data and voice services, which will debut with the launch of commercial Xohm service.
Advertising agency partner selected
Soho Square, a WPP company, has been named advertising agency of record to help launch the Xohm brand in North America. As part of this relationship, Xohm will leverage resources from a wide range of WPP companies including Ogilvy and Mindshare/GroupM.
Xohm WiMAX from Sprint is designed to mobilize the Internet, bring wireless innovation to devices and deliver new mobile multimedia applications to consumers, businesses and local governments. Customers will be able to experience new forms of interactive communications, high-speed mobile Internet browsing, social networking tools, local and location-centric products and services and multimedia services. For additional information visit www.xohm.com.
About The Author
Dusan Belic
Dusan has been using smartphones since their introduction and is now following the latest trends in the industry. The "convergence" is what he's most excited about, and writing about it is the next logical thing to do. He thinks that using a smartphone is what everyone who cares about their time should do. In addition to his interests in mobile phones, Dusan also loves to experiment with the latest web and mobile 2.0 services. The idea of accessing and managing your information from any device no matter where you are simply amazes him. Whether it's an online to-do list, note taking service or a video sharing social network, he's there to try it out. He admits though, he's still searching for the ultimate web-based organizational tool, which "sings" perfectly with the mobile PIM application. Dusan used to run SymbianWatch.com which later became part of IntoMobile. He lives in Serbia, South-East Europe, from where he edits the site on a daily basis.
