Sprint Primed for WiMax Launch

Sprint has unveiled new corporate partnerships to help meet its goal of deploying its WiMax wireless broadband network in DC, Baltimore, and Chicago by April, the Washington Post reports. The wireless provider has joined with several companies to provide online storage, security, and mobile devices for WiMax, which offers speeds comparable to DSL at ranges far greater than typical wireless networks.

Sprint claims it will spend $5 billion to spread WiMax throughout the country, though not everyone is convinced of the prudence of such an expenditure for the troubled company, which is losing ground in its main cell phone business. "There's really only a demand for it if people start using their devices in a fundamentally different way," commented one analyst. (More Sprint stories.)