By Wireless Week Staff with additional reporting CED Staff
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Sprint Nextel will officially launch its Xohm mobile WiMAX network Oct. 8 in Baltimore, the company said today.
The announcement and demonstrations will take place at the Bond Street Wharf Park, officials said.
Intel will be a major sponsor, along with Motorola, Nokia, Nokia-Siemens Networks, Samsung, ZTE and ZyXEL. Technology partners also include Ciena, DragonWave, Mformation and others. There are location-based services partners as well.
Future service will launch in Chicago and Washington, D.C., Sprint previously said. The carrier will share its technology with Clearwire after the companies complete their merger.
Ciena, in a separate announcement today, specified that its Carrier Ethernet backhaul products are one of multiple brands that Sprint will use for Xohm.
“Backhaul is a key focus area for us as we build out the Xohm network,” said Doug Smith, senior vice president and chief technical operations officer of Sprint’s Xohm business unit in a prepared statement. “A next-generation, Ethernet-based architecture can optimize efficiency and give us backhaul cost advantages. Ciena’s Carrier Ethernet platforms offer performance, scalability and simplified traffic engineering to expedite deployment and accommodate growth demands.”