Sprint Nextel  yesterday announced plans to build a high-speed fourth-generation wireless network based on 802.16e mobile WiMAX, becoming the first U.S. carrier to put its muscle and money behind this evolving technology.

Sprint Nextel President and CEO Gary Forsee said Sprint Nextel, working with Intel , Motorola and Samsung, will make a $1 billion investment in 2007 and nearly double that amount in 2008.

"4G is all about lighting up devices, like portable game systems, digital still and video cameras, DVD and MP3 players, diagnostic devices and navigations systems and devices you probably don't think about linking wirelessly to the Internet today," explained Forsee.

"We will link consumers to consumers and businesses to business."

The planned WiMAX network will offer download speeds ranging from 2 megabits per second (Mbps) to 4 Mbps, which is about four times faster than Sprint's EV-DO 3G cellular networks.

In practicality, this means subscribers will be able to download a 10-minute video to a wireless mobile player in about 100 seconds, Forsee said.

WiMAX and other IP-based wireless technologies are roughly one-tenth the cost of cellular systems, he claimed.

Despite the performance and advantages, Foresee was careful to point out the WiMAX effort will not interfere with Sprint's plans to evolve its current EV-DO. The WiMAX system will, however, operate over the same 2.5 gigahertz (GHz) frequencies owned by Sprint, which now serves 85 percent of the households in the top U.S. market areas, he added.

Sprint claims to be the largest provider of EVDO services in the U.S.

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