Sprint Partners with Google to Promote WiMAX Launch

Ina Sebastian | July 30, 2007, 02:59 PM

Sprint has entered a revenue sharing agreement with Google for provision of search capabilities, e-mail and other applications on the upcoming WiMAX network. After delays, Sprint plans to roll out the mobile access network this year, beginning in major metropolitan areas like Washington, Baltimore, and Chicago. Clearwire, a Wimax operator with experience regarding buildout and client service, will lead the deployment. Sprint’s partnership with Google provides increased visibility – similar to Google’s ventures into municipal Wi-Fi – however Sprint has to overcome the lack of embedded equipment, in particular as long as WiMAX deployments will suffer from issues of worldwide spectrum harmonization and roaming.

WiMAX promises an eventually nationwide high-speed Internet experience from portable devices (Sprint does not focus on a cellular model). Consumer interest in citywide mobile access is high, in fact the number two motivator to pay for public Wi-Fi among nomadic (daily and weekly) and less frequent users. Citywide, not nationwide access will be most interesting for daily users, which already own Wi-Fi equipment. Municipal Wi-Fi networks will likely compete on price as a tradeoff for network speed, assuming sufficient quality. Ad-supported citywide networks will be an alternative in some cities. Google is also active in this space, however privacy concerns and politics can slow down deployments (see upcoming San Francisco Google/Earthlink network). That said, 21 percent of public Wi-Fi users would rather use ad-supported networks than pay for public access.

Clients can learn more about consumer behavior at public access locations in “Location-Based Applications: Leveraging Public Wi-Fi for New Consumer Services” and in our upcoming Public Wi-Fi Consumer Survey Vision Report.