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Sprint - at last! plans a Wimax phone. Still no NY coverage, tho

If "being in real trouble" is enough to distinguish a company from its rivals, then Sprint has it down, with its WiMAX phone network in the US. But, at last (reports Roger Cheng, it is actually going to have its first phone Cheng told his readers:

Sprint Nextel Corp. plans to sell a phone compatible with its next-generation wireless network starting this summer, as part of an effort to help distinguish the struggling wireless carrier from its larger rivals.

The report will please Intel, the biggest WiMAX booster, because it refers to the technology as "fourth generation" telephony.

"The phone would be the first 4G-compatible phone in U.S.; some other countries already are using 4G technology."

Clearwire, in which Sprint controls a majority stake, is handling the roll-out and maintenance of the network, which got off to a slow start, observes Cheng. Both companies want to push what he calls "the faster 4G service" before the other wireless carriers begin rolling out their own next-generation networks.

Cheng found the story on the Forbes.com blog written by Elizabeth Woyke a technology writer for Forbes.

Woykes asked:

"How useful is a super-fast wireless broadband network if there are no super-speedy phones that run on it?

"It's a question consumers have been asking since 2008 when Sprint Nextel launched the US' first fourth-generation (4G) wireless network. Over the years, Sprint has introduced non-phone devices such as USB modems, PC cards and "mobile hotspots" that connect other gadgets to 4G, but people continued to clamor for compatible phones."

Forbes earlier reported that Sprint would launch a WiMax phone this summer, but Sprint and Clearwire "have sold a number of other WiMax products, including USB modems and its Overdrive mobile hotspot device, which can tap into the WiMax connection to create a portable Wi-Fi hotspot."

The publication added that this launch might be seen as early, "especially with the WiMax network not fully deployed," and that therefore"the phone will have to work with both WiMax and a cellular connection due to the large gaps in coverage."

That's a bit of an understatement (says the report) since some of the large gaps include places like New York City and San Francisco...