Sprint Nextel introduces WiMAX smartphone

LAS VEGAS--In a move that was anticipated, Sprint Nextel, which resells WiMAX service and owns the controlling interest in Clearwire, introduced its first WiMAX smartphone, the "Evo 4G," built by HTC. Pricing details were not revealed but Sprint said the phone would go on sale sometime this summer.

The device includes an impressive number of cutting edge features, including an 8-megapixel camera on the back. a 1.3-megapixel camera on the front, HD video capture, Android 2.1, HTC's Sense UI, the 1 GHz Snapdragon processor from Qualcomm, a 4.3-inch touchscreen display, support for Adobe's Flash technology in the browser, personal hotspot capability whereby the device can connect up to eight WiFi-enabled devices, and an FM radio.

The Wall Street Journal last week reported that Sprint would unveil an HTC-built WiMAX smartphone at this week's CTIA Wireless 2010 trade show.

The lack of a WiMAX handset has been seen as one critical piece hurting the rapid adoption of WiMAX services. During Sprint's fourth-quarter call with analysts, Hesse said he expected 2010 to become the year of 4G, or WiMAX.

"It's going to be the year that we're the only game in town, and it's a combination of we need to get more markets turned up, and we need to get a better device lineup and then we think we can really start to show some sizable progress," Hesse said during the company's fourth-quarter conference call last month.

Clearwire plans to roll out mobile WiMAX to 120 million POPs by the end of the year, with major market launches in Boston, New York City, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. 

For more:
- see this FierceWireless article

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