Sprint Confirms Plans for WiMAX/3G Smartphone

It’s official. Sprint Nextel recently confirmed to Forbes that its plans to introduce its first dual-mode WiMAX/3G smartphone during the first half of this year, a few months earlier than initially anticipated.

Paget Alves, Sprint’s president of Business Markets, said in an interview with Forbes that the device will be out by the summer. The device could be the rumored HTC Supersonic.

As you may know, Sprint 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.

As rivals Verizon and AT&T prepare to launch competitive 4G networks based on LTE technology, Sprint is scrambling for a first-mover advantage. A WiMAX handset is critical in order for Sprint and its partners to gain early market share.

Forbes has more.

Related posts:

1. Report: Sprint Preparing WiMAX Smartphone
2. Sprint Drops Price of Mobile WiMAX
3. Clearwire and Sprint to Launch WiMAX Service in Big Cities
4. Sprint Nextel and Clearwire Partner on WiMAX Network
5. Sprint WiMAX Device, the HTC EVO, Arrives June 4