Report: Sprint Preparing WiMAX Smartphone

Reports and a photo of Sprint Nextel Inc.’s first WiMax smartphone, code-named Supersonic, have surfaced. The wireless provider has yet to confirm the device, although officials announced at CES that their first WiMax-enabled smartphone would debut later in 2010.

Phonenews.com broke the story, noting that Supersonic, built by HTC, has a 4.3-inch capacative touchscreen, FM radio, and includes HTC’s acclaimed Sense user interface, built on an Android 2.1 mobile operating system.

Although Sprint has touted WiMAX network speeds between 3 Mbps-6 Mbps, few devices other than laptop cards have surfaced to take advantage of the wireless technology. As rivals Verizon and AT&T prepare to launch LTE networks, Sprint is scrambling for a first-mover advantage. Sprint, of course, resells Clearwire’s mobile WiMAX service under the Sprint CLEAR brand. Clearwire is in the midst of an aggressive rollout, with plans to cover 80 markets and 120 million POPS by the end of the year.

Network World has more.

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3. Clearwire and Sprint to Launch WiMAX Service in Big Cities
4. Sprint Nextel and Clearwire Partner on WiMAX Network
5. Sprint Launches EVO, First 3G/WiMAX Handset