The Department of Defense, working with the FCC, DHS, the President, and Congress, plans to purchase Sprint Nextel's iDEN network. The plan will eventually ensure that everyone involved in national security will be on the same network, allowing all soldiers, first responders, and chains of command to be able contact each other in the event of, for example, multiple simultaneous disasters.
One result of this deal will be that Sprint will receive a large amount bandwidth in the 700 and 800Mhz bands, which it will use to offer nationwide mobile WiMax broadband services over the next four to five years.
Not long ago, Sprint also announced a plan to offer co-branded wireless services with cable broadband operators Comcast, Cox, and Time Warner. The two deals together may position cable operators to compete with telephony giants like SBC, enabling them to offer fast WiMax connections more cheaply.
So what's the upshot of all this? First, WiMax could receive a huge boost, bringing fast, wireless and cheap Internet access to your home in the not-too-distant-future
WiMax, in case you didn't know, is a system which is faster than Wi-Fi, the wireless standard which is currently popular in home and office networks. With WiMax:
I have a history of being an early adopter and identifying trends and responding to them quickly. That is one of the reasons I was able to start this newsletter 8 years ago, long before the Internet and email became widely adopted.
It is easy for me to spot tech trends as this report is one of the most significant trends in tech developments I have seen in awhile. It will affect everyone reading this. Within 5-10 years your conventional phone service will not exist because all phone service will packet based data transmitted over the Internet (Voice over IP). This also includes your cell phone.
So even though Verizon is the current leader in US cell phones, with Sprint's deal with the Defense Department and their rollout of their high speed 3G internet data service it seems clear that they are poised to be the leading cell carrier in the US, which is why I am sticking with Sprint as my cell carrier.
Their deal with the Defense Department virtually secures they will be the leading WiMax carrier in the not-too-distant-future. The article above explains how Sprint will be able to take licenses as needed from whoever has them regardless of how fairly they gained them at FCC auction in the past.
With the US Congress, the FCC, and the President in the loop, Sprint will have no problem in gaining dominance in WiMax. This is huge and virtually NO ONE has seen this Defense Department document or is aware of it.
There is little question that WiMax will change your life forever. We will finally have inexpensive high-speed universal net access anywhere we go.
One of the greatest features of WiMax is that it can be broadcast for 30 miles. This greater range and higher bandwidth gives service providers the ability to offer broadband Internet access directly to homes, without having to worry about the problems that can arise.
As a result, there is no need to be concerned about connection problems when laying down a physical connection over the so-called last mile, which connects homes with service providers' main networks.
Another effect of these deals? Experts on the subject judge that Sprint could be placing itself in a position to nearly monopolize the wireless business. I also wouldn't be surprised if their main competitor becomes Google, which is also poised to become a major player in the wireless market.
My New Sprint Phone
Last week I just replaced my phone to the new Sprint EVDO phone. I chose the Samsung A940 that is absolutely loaded with features. It was the PC Magazine Editor's choice phone and is pretty good looking and has a four hour battery life (four hours of talk time).
I especially like that it can accept a memory card so I can insert a 1 gigabyte card and have my phone be an MP3 player. It also serves as a 2 meg camera and camcorder. But best of all, and the reason I got it, for $15 a month I can use the phone as a modem to connect to the Internet a near cable modem speeds of 700 Kbps on the EV-DO network.
There is little question that WiMax will change our lives forever. We will finally have inexpensive high-speed universal net access anywhere we go.