Hands-on with Sprint's Xohm network in Baltimore: Does WiMAX deliver?

Sprint heralded the launch of its Xohm WiMax network in Baltimore last week by calling for the death of wireline broadband. But how does it stand up against cable and DSL, or wireless 3G services? BetaNews has been using Xohm for the past month in order to find out.

The promise of WiMax is nothing short of grand: blanket cities across the United States and around the world with 4Mbps wireless at a cost cheaper than existing services and with the simplicity of connecting to a Wi-Fi network. 4G wireless, Sprint proclaims, is an inevitable future. The company even offered a symbolic photo-op for journalists at its launch event: Xohm chief technology officer Barry West, joined by Sprint CEO Dan Hesse and other WiMax partners snipping an Ethernet cable.

Except, it's not really as simple as a big pair of scissors cutting loose the past. WiMax faces a great number of challenges -- and even a rival wireless standard -- it must overcome before you and I will talk about the days of yore where Internet connectivity was delivered by cords.

Before we glimpse forward in time, it's important to understand the history of WiMax, or 802.16 as the standard is dubbed by IEEE. Work on "Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access" (WiMax), began in the 1990s at numerous companies. But it remained an obscure technology until 2001 when the WiMax Forum was created to promote its standardization and adoption. For the last 5 years, a sequence of events has finally brought WiMax to the mainstream, beginning with Intel's support in 2003 and Craig McCaw's purchase of Clearwire Technologies in 2004.

McCaw launched the first mobile phone service in the United States, and understood the value proposition of wireless broadband. He took Clearwire's spectrum and name, and began quietly purchasing up more spectrum it could use to deploy wireless broadband using a Pre-WiMax standard. In 2006, Intel, Motorola and Bell Candada invested $1 billion into Clearwire.

Then came Sprint. The company owned the largest amount of 2.5Ghz spectrum used by WiMax thanks to its merger with Nextel, and it was eager to develop a wireless broadband network that could compete with 3G offerings from Verizon and AT&T. In May 2008, Sprint's Xohm unit and Clearwire announced their intent to merge with a 51%/27% split, while a consortium consisting of Comcast, Time Warner, Intel, Google and Bright House would put in $3.2 billion to own the remaining 22% of the combined company. If the merger clears regulatory hurdles later this year, the company will become Clearwire, although Sprint hasn't specifically said it will drop the Xohm brand.

So where does WiMax go from here? To the surprise of many, Baltimore was selected as the launch city for Xohm. West explained that due to its large waterfront, Baltimore was one of the more difficult cities in which to setup WiMax. If the company could make the network reliable, West said, it would be prepared to tackle expansion into other cities. Washington DC and Chicago will follow in early 2009, and Xohm expects the coverage area to reach 80 million people by the end of next year.

But if it hopes to succeed, WiMax needs customers. A question that was raised numerous times during the launch event was about Xohm's target market. Is WiMax aimed at replacing cable and DSL services in the home, or has it been designed to succeed 3G wireless broadband like EV-DO and HSDPA/HSUPA. The answer: it's expected to change over time.

For now, Xohm is most useful in the home, where a stationary WiMax modem picks up the signal and shares it among locally networked computers. Sprint is still in the process of setting up WiMax antennas (it has deployed 180 out of 300 planned in Baltimore), and coverage can be spotty if you're traveling to different parts of the city.

Moreover, in the short term, WiMax will only cover major metropolitan areas. If you're not located close to a larger city, or traveling on a train from Washington DC to New York, 2.5G and 3G wireless remain the only option. Verizon and AT&T have spent the last five years rolling out their 3G networks across the United States, while large scale WiMax deployments have only just begun. But eventually, Sprint wants 4G to be just as ubiquitous.

In order to spur early adoption by consumers, Sprint has taken a unique approach to selling and marketing Xohm. There are no contracts, and no activation or setup fees. Customers can purchase the devices independently from the service. And it's all self serve: once you plug in the WiMax device you've ordered, you simply load up a Web browser and you're online in minutes. Mobile carts have been stationed around Baltimore to demonstrate the wireless network to curious passersby.

Pricing is also quite low, with a special promotion offering Internet access for both home networks and mobile laptops (using two devices) at a total cost of $50 per month. In comparison, Verizon charges $80 per month for EV-DO service and requires at least a one-year contract when signing up. Add in $50 for cable Internet and you're paying more than double what Xohm charges.

Next: The verdict on quality of service...