Orange County Register

This morning in Baltimore, Sprint turned on its fouth-generation (4G) mobile Internet service that it calls XOHM (sounds like roam). The service, based on WiMax technology, offers data speeds of 2 to 4 Mbps, which is much faster than today’s typical 3G cellular data speeds of 1 Mbps.

Think of WiMax as a massive Wi-Fi cloud where you can travel for miles on the same wireless connection.  Sprint’s hope is that this mobile Internet will replace your cable modem or other high-speed Internet service at home.

But that’s Baltimore. What about Orange County?

Sprint's XOHM modem comes from Anaheim's ZyXEL Communications.

Sprint launched its 3G service in Orange County two years ago, about two months after it first unveiled the service nationwide in San Diego. However, OC came after Salt Lake City, Sacramento, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Rochester, Hartford, Boston, Seattle, Las Vegas and Milwaukee. So, two months after the first city launch, we got it. Hmm…

Officially, Sprint will only say “No date set for OC,” said a Sprint spokesperson.

Maybe it doesn’t know yet. In a press release from March 2007, Sprint mentioned it would launch WiMax in the following cities: Chicago, Detroit, Grand Rapids, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Minneapolis, Baltimore, Boston, Philadelphia, Providence, Washington D.C.; Austin, Dallas, Denver, Fort Worth, Portland, Salt Lake City, San Antonio and Seattle.

Today, Sprint, along with its 4G partner Clearwire Corp., posted on the XOHM web site that Chicago and Washington, D.C., will be the next cities to get this the service.  And sooner than later, XOHM will launch in Dallas, Fort Worth, Boston, Providence and Philadelphia.

But then I spoke to Munira Brooks, the senior vice president of sales and marketing and strategic account development for ZyXEL Communications Corp., the Anaheim company that made the WiMax modems for Sprint.

Her guess for WiMax in OC? Mid 2009.

“Just the logistics of working city by city. I’m sure the next market for Clearwire will be Vegas then perhaps San Jose and then Anaheim,” said Brooks, based on her knowledge of testing and how Zyxel’s customers were using their products. “I would hope that by mid-next year we would have it here.”

Clearwire already offers high-speed mobile Internet service in more than 25 cities, including a handful in Northern California. The company, of course, plans to include these in its future WiMax rollout. Most likely, Brooks added, Clearwire would handle the California installation.

Where in the nation is 4G?

The news today is the first for a major cellular provider to launch the faster data service. Verizon and AT&T are focusing on the competing technology called LTE, short for Long Term Evolution. That 4G service, with speeds of up to 144 mbps, is not expected to launch anywhere until maybe late next year and into 2010.

Analyst Daryl Schoolar, who has been following 4G wireless technology for market researcher In-Stat, said that neither 4G service will become widespread until 10 years from now.

“Yes, (Sprint’s XOHM) is significant because it’s a step ahead of what’s out there today in terms of wireless data,” Schoolar said.

Plus, he added, this is targeting not just mobile Internet users but home Internet users.

“Sprint is going after that market. Clearwire has shown that quite a number of their subscribers are coming from DSL or Cable,” Schoolar said.

Even faster 3G from AT&T

AT&T isn’t too worried. While the company has been testing WiMax in Alaska and 20 other rural cities nationwide, it is moving ahead with plans to implement its 4G service three years from now. AT&T feels there is no rush to get to the next technology, said Mark Siegel, AT&T Mobility’s executive director of media relations.

“One of the reasons Sprint has to move so quickly on WiMax is that its 3G technology, called EVDO, is no longer capable of delivering increased speeds,” Siegel said. “We still have plenty of room to increase speeds on our 3G technology.”

In “the next few weeks,” Spiegel said AT&T will bump up its 3G speeds to 7.2 mbps from today’s 3.6 mbps maximum. Then it will double to 14.4 Mbps and by next year, speeds could be up to 20 Mbps.

Still, that’s not yet available. Sprint’s announcement today for certain parts of Baltimore means that Sprint users can get the 2-4 Mbps data speeds today.

Sprint users can buy a Samsung Express air card for $60 and a ZyXEL modem for $80. Service costs $10 for a day pass, $25/month for home usage or $30/month for the on-the-go service. The service fee pays for one device. A $50/month charge for two devices is also available.

Images of WiMax modems are from Zyxel.

Related:

• Google Phone launches for $179, photos!
• Verizon Wireless nixes contracts
• Finally, T-Mobile speaks: 3G Internet coming to O.C.
• UPDATE: AT&T improves indoor cell signal … for some of O.C.
• BillShrink quickly shows how to save on cell bill

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Slices of O.C. business (Sept. 20-26)
It was a hectic week, no? So, we can’t blame you if you missed of few of these Orange County business gems …

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