Sprint, Google Pair on Wireless Broadband Network
Google and Sprint Nextel will collaborate to build a mobile portal that will let users search the Internet and take part in social networks over a high-speed wireless network.
Sprint will reportedly begin testing that network, built on a tech platform called WiMax, in Chicago, Baltimore and Washing ton D.C. by the end of the year and hopes to have it in commercial service by April 2008.
In a revenue-sharing deal, Google will be the exclusive Web search provider and the preferred provider for other services such as instant messaging, e-mail and Google Calendar. The company will also deliver ads on the search results pages.
WiMax technology can deliver a broadband connection of up to 4 megabytes per second, much faster than either DSL or cable. It can also propagate that signal over a range of miles, unlike WiFi’s range of several hundred feet.
The deal was Sprint’s first partnership with an Internet technology company on the new network. Sprint has not yet released any pricing for the WiMax service, and analysts have questioned the acceptance the network will receive. Access to content and services designed specifically for WiMax, especially from a popular brand name such as Google, could nudge take-up of the network.
Sprint already operates a technology that can detect users’ locations in its networks. The company said it will combine that with Google’s local directory knowledge to enable location-based search, so that a Sprint WiMax user will be able to find the nearest pizzeria without having to type in a ZIP code or address.
Google has been vocal of late in complaining that large entrenched wireless carriers are throttling the development of the mobile market by blocking user access to services from providers other than those carried on their “deck” or start page. Google has even offered to take part in an upcoming auction of wireless spectrum, provided the Federal Communications Commission stipulates that the winning bidder must wholesale some of those airwaves to competitive, independent wireless carriers.
