Sprint will commercially launch its first WiMAX market in September in Baltimore and turn up service in its two other trial markets, Chicago and Washington, D.C., before the end of the year, said Sprint CEO Dan Hesse during his keynote address at NXTcomm08.

The launch is a long time coming as Sprint has pushed back the date throughout the year as it dealt with its troubled finances, operational changes, changes in its executive staff—including Hesse’s replacing former CEO Gary Forsee—and negotiated with fellow WiMAX adopter Clearwire and a myriad of other companies to share the operation and costs of the new network. Sprint first deployed the three networks last year, flipping the switch right before Christmas, but since then Sprint has launched only employee trials. Commercial trials early in the year and a full commercial launch in second quarter failed to materialize. But all of the pieces now appear to be in place to take the wraps off the first market by fall.

Source: TelephonyOnline.com