Sprint will invest $5 billion over the next few years in the network for its Wimax broadband service, which it christened “Xohm” on Thursday.
The Reston-based company outlined in detail its financial and technological strategies for the first time since its merger with Nextel two years ago.
“Over the past couple years, we’ve gotten a lot done by any measure,” Chief Executive Officer Gary Forsee said during a technology summit in D.C. on Thursday.
“Both our networks are at their best-ever status, and we remain very focused on executing plans for achieving our objectives,” Forsee said.
Sprint announced in July it would partner with Clearwire, the other company working on a large-scale Wimax network, for the service. At the summit, Chief Technology Officer Barry West said Sprint expects the Xohm (pronounced “zoam”) network to reach 100 million people by the end of 2008. D.C. will be the first area to receive a soft launch of the service later this year.
Companies have committed to embedding 50 million Wimax chipsets in various devices as well, West said. Samsung, Motorola and Intel are among those companies producing technology which will include the chipsets.
The partnership with Clearwire should yield between $2 billion and $2.5 billion in revenues for Sprint for fiscal 2010, the company estimated.
Forsee also said the company will market its push-to-talk services under the brand name Nextel Direct Connect.
