ORLANDO (WiMAX Day). At a news conference on Monday, before the CTIA Wireless exposition, Sprint Nextel announced further expansion of their WiMAX ecosystem to include a “Device and Chipset Ecosystem,” that will include new products based on the 802.16e standard.

According to a Sprint spokesman, this will foster more communication amongst chipset designers and device manufacturers, and will guide Sprint partners on technical specifications, features and functionality.

“Sprint has taken a leadership role in the WiMAX network development arena and is working with other technology leaders to quickly bring advanced mobile broadband services to reality,” said Barry West, Sprint president of 4G Mobile Broadband.

The first step in this endeavour will add device manufacturers that will support Sprint’s WiMAX network with external modem and USB devices. It was reiterated that Samsung would supply dual-mode WiMAX-EVDO cards for PCs, and the Chinese equipment manufacter ZTE was also added to the roster to supply PC cards that will connect to the WiMAX network via USB and ExpressCards. Also, the Taiwanese manufacturer ZyXel will also supply Sprint with WiMAX modems.

Keep it Open, and more will come
Sprint is pushing for all new devices that can connect with the Sprint WiMAX network to follow an “open” model. “We are building the mobile Internet, we are not building ‘cellular Internet’,” said Atish Gude, senior vice president for mobile operations at Sprint. “The Internet is an open model, and we are following an open model,” Gude added.

With this “open” model, Sprint intends that its network will attract more than simply broadband customers. Sprint subscribes to the Samsung Weltanschauung where almost any electronic device can be WiMAX-enabled. This implies that portable handheld devices, gaming systems, digital cameras and video players, can all connect to the Internet via an embedded WiMAX chip.

In such network, digital photos can be upload directly to the Internet from a camera, and gaming devices become a roaming multi-player extravaganza where role playing and dragon slaying can be enjoyed on the bus, in a café, literally anywhere a WiMAX connection can be had.

As Sprint embraces an open Internet model that enables WiMAX connectivity to everything except cats and dogs, the company is paving the way toward the realisation of true Next Generation networks.

“Recent developments attest to the viability of our strategy, as more companies align with our vision and apply their expertise to the momentum building behind Sprint WiMAX,” West added.