6 Comments

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  Darr247 1/9/2010 6:24:02 PM

  As a sprint customer I must say their WiMAX customers better HOPE they don't get 1Gbps speeds, or they'll use up their monthly limit of 5GB in less than a minute.
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  Stockholmer 1/8/2010 2:45:05 PM

  mobilemutt, if you think think that Sprint will soon offer USA customers 1Gps download speeds from a mobile/semi-mobile platform, you are delusional, a Sprint employee, or a shill, perhaps all 3. IEEE 802.16m is 4G WiMAX, and is not even close to being rolled out anywhere, let alone the USA, who are 5+ years behind the EU and Asia. We had UMTS is 2001/2002, you had it in 2008/2009, and UMTS is 3G, not 3.5.ot 3.75, and leeps away from 4G. Stop deluding yourself. Ido not know a NICE WAY of saying this, but...the only thing that the USA sets the standards in these days is racking up a national debt (when the 24 trillion in TARP money is factored in http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32010841/ns/business-us_business ) of over 37 trillion (almost triple your GDP) Stop with jingoistic USA-centrism, as well as the disinformation on wireless tech.
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  mobilemutt 1/7/2010 8:05:03 PM

  Don't know how to say this in a nice way Stockholmer so I'll just say it-wireless speed standards are set here in the U.S.-not abroad. You are also misinformed. Many of my sources (many from Sprint engineers themselves) insist that Wi-Max will surpass 1GBPS for download and 800 MBPS for upload-for starters. Sprint will be fastest AND first and has already made commitments to working with other electronics manufacturers to deliver new devices that can capitalize on this speed.
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  Al 1/7/2010 2:57:32 PM

  I go by the ITU definition, that WiMAX is a 3G technology. It was Dan himself who decided that WiMAX would be called 4G, as marketing hype more than technical fact. HSPA+ will offer speeds much faster than WiMAX, so is that 5G? Its very convenient for someone to mislabel their technology as something, then go say they are the only operator offering it.
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  Jim Chesky 1/7/2010 2:33:33 PM

  Why is Sprint lagging behind in sales and growth? Go figure. They have the have the better network according to several technical surveys, and they are the only network that offers 4G, and a number of surveys place them at or near the top in customer service (an old bugaboo with them) Could it be they are not very adventurous with new handsets? At one time they were a leading supporter of Google and open handsets. They do need to do more work in this arena, but they have all the parts in place and are ready for such a hot-handset.
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  Stockholmer 1/7/2010 2:27:22 PM

  WiMax is NOT 4G, it will typically deliver 3 to 5 Mbps, something we have had here in the EU for years with 3G UMTS technology. True 4G will burst up to 100 Mbps for hi-mobileity devices and ONE GBPS for stationary devces. I was in the states when Sprint, Verizon, etc were trying to pass off 2.5G/2.75G technologies (EDGE, etc) as 3G, and this was 5 years after true UMTS 3G service was rolled out all over Asia and the EU. True roll-out of 3G UMTS on a national basis just started in the the US n 2008/2009. We have had 14Mbps HSDPA(3.5G) for years here, and are rolling out 22 to 30 Mbps HSPA+ (3.75G) as we speak. True 4G Wi-Max is called IEEE 802.16m and is not even close to being rolled out on a mass basis anywhere. If I was an American consumer, I would claim systemic false advertising on the part of all your national carriers. The average person here would instantly sever service if any of our carriers had download speeds as slow as what 99 percent of USa carriers offer (if told that this was 3G now). In adition, my HSDPA service is 3 times faster (as a 3.5G technolgy that millions use here) that what you are calling 4G Wi-Max.