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It seems that Boston won’t have to wait until the end of the year to get fourth-generation cell phone coverage after all.
According to officials at Sprint Nextel Corp., the Kansas-based carrier has been testing its high-speed WiMax cell signals at various points around Boston for more than a month. The official public launch will happen within “a few weeks,” according to Matt Carter, Sprint’s president of 4G.
As recently as last May, Sprint would only commit to turning on 4G in Boston by the end of the year. Now, along with partner Clearwire Corp. of Kirkland, Wash., it seems likely that the Hub could have broadband speed connections on mobile devices by as soon as Labor Day. Carter wouldn’t give a hard date for the official activation, but the fact that Sprint’s second 4G-capable phone, the Samsung Epic, goes on sale Aug. 31 seems to be a good indicator for the timing of the 4G launch in Boston.
“It’s really important to get Boston right,” Carter said, and not just because he is originally from Boston. “What happens in Boston can positively or negatively impact us.”
While Sprint already has WiMax deployed in 48 metro areas around the country, including Baltimore, Philadelphia, Seattle and Las Vegas, the launch in Boston will also see a greater emphasis by Sprint on targeting the enterprise customer with a whole suite of connectivity offerings and devices.
“We’re selling an ecosystem of devices, so we’re not banking on just one device,” Carter said.
In addition to the upcoming Epic, Sprint already has on the market the Evo 4G, made by HTC, as well as a Sierra Wireless-made Overdrive 3G/4G mobile hotspot device. When combined with its existing 3G coverage and products, and its well-known push-to-talk offerings, Sprint sees its advantage in being able to offer something for every enterprise need. Key to that is having a broad enough coverage for its new 4G service.
To help reach those enterprise customers, Sprint has about 500 employees in the Boston area, according to Joseph Mandacina, Sprint’s vice president of corporate communications.
Sprint’s major 4G competitor in Boston, Verizon Communications Corp., is still planning on rolling out its own flavor of 4G, called long term evolution (LTE) by the end of the year, according to Brian Higgins, executive director for network technology for Verizon Wireless.
“We’re on track for commercial delivery in up to 30 markets before year’s end,” Higgins said. One of those new markets will be Boston.
For its part, Sprint didn’t say how much it cost to roll out 4G in Boston, nor how many subscribers it hopes to pick up here. Officials have said that they are in markets with 55 million potential subscribers so far with 4G and are on track to boost that number to 120 million by the end of the year.
That will give Sprint and Clearwire about a four-month headstart with 4G in Boston, adding to its nearly yearlong headstart in other cities, which Carter sees as a major plus for Sprint.
“By the end of the year we may not have a network deployment advantage, but we will have a knowledge advantage,” Carter said. “What Verizon is doing then — we’ve already been there.”
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