Sprint plans WiMAX soft launch, but budget finalization still looms

The products are out there for Sprint's WiMAX 4G wireless network, and the network service finally might follow, according to officials of Sprint and the WiMAX Forum.

At a press conference this week in Barcelona, Spain, WiMAX Forum President Ron Resnick counted almost 50 exhibitors as on hand at the Mobile World Congress with WiMAX products, initially ranging from modems to USB dongles.

Ali Tabassi, Sprint's VP for technology development, said that Sprint now intends to move forward with a soft launch of its Xohm WiMAX network, despite the cancellation last fall of plans to deploy the service together with Clearwire.

The WiMAX soft launch is now slated to take place this spring in three US cities: Chicago, Baltimore, and Washington, DC. But also according to Tabassi, the soft launch still awaits budget finalization.

Fraught by financial problems stemming from trying to operate three separate networks -- its traditional Sprint network, WiMAX, and Sprint's acquired Nextel property -- Sprint underwent a management shakeup in January, naming Dan Hesse as its new CEO.