Sprint Nextel has received commitments from device makers to
embed emerging wireless technology WiMax in 50 million devices in the next three
years, an executive for Sprint said on Thursday.
Barry West, president of Sprint's high speed wireless unit, said the company
has commitments from vendors "over the next three years to embed 50 million
units in the United States," with WiMax connections.
Sprint has previously announced the top three mobile phone makers as
technology partners for its plan to start offering services based on WiMax next
year. These are Nokia, Samsung Electronics and Motorola.
Mr. West also said Sprint Nextel is in talks with chip maker Intel and computer makers about developing computers that have embedded connections to
WiMax.
"I'm expecting a lot of it to be embedded by 2010," he said. He expects most computer access to
WiMax will be from computers with embedded WiMax rather than laptops using
separate wireless modems.